The Destiny Chronicles
by legendary.angel17
Summary: Unless people start dropping dead, I've got nothing to do!" Eli/OC. Soon to be titled: Home Sweet Huge Ancient Spaceship.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Announcements - a.k.a., The Rules**

**1. This takes place before Justice, and I will follow the story line up until the episode after 'Divided'. I like those episodes. I also should notify you that I have a horrible memory, and therefore cannot always recall all the details of one scene, and forgive me if I'm missing a character or point.**

**2. I reserve the right to change the grammar of the English language**

**3. This will be an Eli/OC novel length (or more) story. It will be a humourous, romantic, action/adventure, but unfortunately there aren't enough Genre slots for that to be displayed.**

**4. Blanket disclaimer: I am not making any monetary profit off of this story, nor will I ever intentionally copy any aspect of the Stargate: Universe series without stating as such. **

**5. There will be Chloe bashing. I hate that character. I mean, she only just started to realize that she's nothing but a waste of resources when she just so happened to find the journals of Dr. Jackson's that someone just so happened to bring from the exploding base that they just so happened to be on even though their owner was a couple hundred thousand light years away. Maybe, while she's reading them, she can enjoy a nice mug full of imported swiss hot chocolate, and perhaps get some caviar and lobster.**

**6. Don't like, don't read. Don't bother me with pathetic whinging about how you don't like this or that. Don't pester me for updates. I will be going to university in September, and will write on my own schedule. I'm writing this for my own enjoyment, and to refine my writing skills. Therefore, I don't mind recieving suggestions, but only if they are worded as such. **

**7. If you have questions, review and I will email you.**

**8. This first chapter should cover some character relationship introductions, and the now-altered events of 'Justice'.**

**9. I'll make it clear that I find people who knowingly copy others to be the lowest form of life on this planet, second only to politicians. If anyone feels that any finite aspect of my story is a direct violation of their already posted property, email me with your proof, and we'll compare publishing dates. I do, however, realise that there are only so many ideas currently withing the SGUniverse, and therefore something must be identical to be termed plagerism.**

**Happy Reading,**

**Jenn**

_**The Destiny Chronicles**_

_Chapter One_

"Hi TJ. Can I talk to you for a minute?"

The blonde medic looked up from her work, surprised at not seeing the speaker injured in some way. It seemed like ever since they arrived on this ship, she'd done nothing but work.

"Sure Tali. Could you wait in my office?"

"'Kay."

The young woman sat down in the utilitarian chairs that one could consider uncomfortable. She wore black ankle - high boots with a heel, black dress pants, and a short-sleeved shimmery gold top covered by a professional black dress jacket (slightly smudged with dirt), with a matching gold cloth belt loose around her hips, with the end trailing down her thigh. Her strawberry red hair fell to her upper back, and a gold cross rested on a gold chain around her neck.

"So," TJ announced as she entered the sparse room, "what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, after everyone came back from what Eli calls the Firey Sand Planet of Doom all burned up like that, I realised that I am utterly useless on this ship. I'm a forensic scientist, TJ, I can't help anything. So, I've been thinking for a while, and I was wondering if you'd teach me what you know? I hate not being able to do anything."

"That's a great idea! There's way too much work here for just one person - I can't believe I didn't ask you to help out sooner!" Waving for her to follow, TJ led her out to the main infirmary, and started listing off basic first aid and CPR.

Talitha slowly felt her brain be turned to mush.

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

"Well, aren't you inordinately upbeat and chipper."

"Shut up Eli, I've got a headache. Just deal me in."

The math whiz snorted, "Sure thing Miss Cranky."

"What's up sis? You look exhausted."

"Gee, thanks for that glowing complement Matt. Just what I needed." Tali sat up at the table and grabbed the cards Eli zoomed towards her, trying to make her miss. "I asked TJ if I could help her today. I don't know how she expects me to remember everything."

"What made you want to do that?" Matt looked at his sister, trying to guage her cards from her expression. She didn't seem focused on the game itself, though.

"Hello? Forensic Scientist here! Unless people start dropping dead, I've got nothing to do. I'm completely useless." she tossed in some chips (really just initialled, torn up pieces of paper).

"You're not useless Tal." Eli absent-mindedly threw in, glaring at his hand. Eli was horrible at poker - he couldn't bluff to save his life.

"Name one good thing I've done."

"Set up poker nights."

"Doesn't count."

"Why not?"

"I don't see that saving lives, Mr. _I'll just stick my arm in this pretty blue thing and see what happens!_"

"Kids, cut it out! Little kid, your turn." Ron had tossed in his chips.

Tali scowled. "I'm two months younger than Eli. _Two months_! And that makes me the little kid?"

"Yes."

Rolling her eyes, Talitha set her cards on the table. "Well, then the little kid is about to burn all of you. Full house, aces and kings."

Eli softly cleared his throat as the others groaned in exasperation. "Flush. Guess I win again!" he said cheerfully, raking in the chips.

"Beginner's Luck." Tali claimed.

"Times seventeen?" Ron asked exasperatedly, throwing in his hand, and getting up. "I'll see you guys later. I've got patrol.". The group played a few more hands for another hour. At that point, Matt's watched beeped, signalling that it was nearly nine o'clock.

"My patrol starts in five minutes, so I'd better go too. G'night sis, I'll see you later Eli."

Tali observed her last companion as he yawned and wearily put his head on the table, "_Well, aren't you inordinately upbeat and chipper_." She mocked.

Lightly glaring Eli replied, "Rush has me going over the gravity controls in the apple core. It's actually gotten heavier in there. It's not a huge problem, but annoying. Not to mention insanely complicated."

"You really should take a break more often."

Grinning wryly, Eli shook his head. "That's impossible - I'm Math Boy. I have to be available night and day for people to order around."

"Math Boy. I can see it now - duh nuh nuh nuh duh nuh nuh nuh MATH BOY!"

The young man laughed, "Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?"

Giggling, she said "Judging from the looks I'm getting, yes, I do." Her eyes lit up as soon as she saw the kino lightly hovering beside Eli. "Oh, that is going on your documentary. Every time you enter a room, that is SO going to come on. It's your new theme song!" Getting up, she raced around the table and grabbed the kino.

"Oh no you don't! Get back here!" Though the idea of his own theme song was incredibly cool, he wouldn't want that one, even if he deserved it.

Laughing madly, Tali ran out of the mess, Eli hot on her heels. Neither of them were very good runners, but that just meant that they were at each other's level.

They ended up running right passed Matt, who saw the kino and guessed the events. "If only you guys would run like that during calesthenics!"

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

Tali slipped into her quarters breathlessly, having been chased from the mess to the infirmary to the apple core, where Eli grabbed the kino from her.

Personally, she thought that the kinos were creepy: every single movie she had ever watched had that black rim around the vision when viewing from an enemy's point of view. She had termed them the Kreepy Kinos, which had sparked an indignant debate from Eli.

Her quarters were the standard aboard Destiny, with a small bathroom, double bed with gold (the shade clashed horibly with her shirt and belt) quilt, bedside table, desk and chair, and a set of drawers. While on Icarus, she had been in her guest quarters preparing to leave when she heard the emergency evacuation siren. Startled, she had only grabbed her purse and jacket from her room. Not knowing that there was a ship in the atmosphere, she had raced towards the gateroom, running into her brother's group on the way.

Closing her door, Tali removed her clothes until she was in her bra and underwear, and climbed under the gloriously soft covers. She made doubly sure nowadays to close her door, and had been the one to discover that tapping the button three times gave a small glimpse of whoever was on the other side. She had tended to forget to close the door, but never forgot now; Matt had once ran into a kino in search mode right outside her door, and thrown a fit. It was thanks to Rush that Eli didn't get in trouble, as the bitter scientist had quickly testified that the younger man had been snoring away at his console in the apple core at the time. Eli had then deleted the footage for that timeslot without looking at it, under the watchful eye of both Matt and Ron. She didn't want Eli to get in trouble again, and closed the door.

Shutting her eyes, Talitha began to hum herself to sleep.

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

Tali was in the infirmary the next day when TJ handed the infirmary radio over to her. Never having used one, she held it awkwardly.

"Uh, hello?"

"Don't press the button, hold it down."

"Kay. Hello? Tali here."

"Tali, this is Young. We have a little trouble up here in Spencer's quarters, get up here." the Destiny's commander ordered.

Shrugging, the young forensic scientist said "I'll be right there.", handed the radio back to TJ, and left the infirmary.

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

"Do you see a gun?!"

Tali walked into the room to see the one thing she had not expected - after purple polka dotted dancing elephant bumblebee hybrids, that is. A dead body. Looking first at Wrai, wondering if her bemused expression had anything to do with Ron's exclaimation, she turned to Young.

"Colonel, normally I would say that this was a murder due to the lack of weapon, but I am going with my gut and saying that this was suicide. Someone must have interferred with the scene after."

"Are you sure it isn't just a murder from some angry crewman?" the colonel asked skeptically.

"I can't be positive Colonel, I've just arrived. But something here seems off. Look at the position of the body. He's facing the door, ready to climb into bed by his state of dress. An attacker hidden in the room wouldn't have waited for that, especially an angry one. He would've seen someone come in, and there would have been signs of a struggle. It's not like someone can shoot straight at him, and then curve the bullet to hit the side of his head."

"Uh, Miss Scott, I can't help but notice the lack of a gun."

Tali shrugged. "Hence the 'someone interferred with the scene after', Sergeant. While there may be a noticeable lack of a firearm, the gun-shaped imprint in the bed covers, empty bottle of pills in the open drawer, lack of a struggle, and Spencer's it's-all-over attitude all point to one alternative. Suicide."

Young and Greer nodded as though this made perfect sense. Wrai looked at her incredulously, and appeared to be trying to say something.

"...S-so, is there any way of telling who interferred?" she asked.

Tali shrugged. "Not until we find the gun. Then I might be able to get some fingerprints, but first I'd have to get copies of the entire crew's prints, and find a suitable powder. I'd also need records of who else has handed that gun. All in all, it's possible, but a long shot."

"Can you tell us what time it happened?"

Tali nodded. "Yes, but it'd be more accurate if we could get the body to the infirmary. I think Lt. Johansen mentioned something about a small morgue."

Young nodded. "Greer, get one of Eli's hover boards down here, and tell Scott to get everyone in the Gateroom. Nobody is to leave until I say."

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

"Lt. Scott, Eli, Dr. Park, and Airman Dunnings were playing cards in the mess at the time, and can coroborate each other's alibis, and as such, I will be turning the investigation over to Lt. Scott."

"Thank you sir. Okay people, what we're going to do first is a search of all personal quarters-"

"There's no way you're going through my stuff without me there!" Franklin shouted from the front row.

Matt sighed. "Of course, if you want to be present while your room is searched, you have every right to be." with that, people started loudly voicing their desires to be present.

Matt looked over to Eli hopelessly. The young genius shrugged, not being able to put up a viable argument to keeping them in here. "Okay, it'll take all day that way, but... All right then, Franklin, you can go first."

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

"Do you think whoever it was moved the gun after hearing about Tali's work?" Eli asked as he and Scott went to Colonel Young's quarters.

Thinking for a moment, Scott shook his head. "Nah. Only the card group, TJ, the Colonel, and Wrai knew that Tali was an expert in her field; some people don't even know why she was on the base in the first place..."

"Tell me about it."

Matt winced. "Sorry buddy. It just seems like you've been around forever. It's classified though."

"Yeah, I know." They had reached the door.

Scott pressed his radio. "You're up Colonel, do you want to be here?"

Their commander's voice broke through, filled with static. "No, you guys go ahead. I'm going to keep an eye on things here."

"Okay." Scott opened the door and the two started looking around. Matt realised that this would be the perfect opportunity for someone to undermine the Colonel's authority on board, but didn't want to voice that opinion to Eli; not only was he generally the honest type, but the kid usually had a kino floating around somewhere near him, and Colonel Young wouldn't be happy to hear such a comment. As a result, Scott searched half-heartedly.

"Well, there's obviously nothing here. Let's go, Eli."

Nodding, Eli quickly shined his flashlight into the air vent. He'd been thinking about having a network of kinos floating in the air vents in public places. Obviously not in people's rooms, but if the idea had occured to _him_ to hide something there, he figured that it would've occured to someone else long ago. He didn't want to find anything - the Colonel seemed to be the type of guy who tried to do the best all the time. He hadn't even seen the man lie, when it seemed that plots and schemes were the general past time for the majority of the crew.

Luckily, the vent was empty.

For the sake of those probably surrounding the man, Scott called over the radio and said the room was clean. Young made some comment about not having socks to throw on the floor, before the duo moved on.

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

Dr. Park gasped as she saw the weapon. "Colonel Young, Ms. Wrai, Talitha, you guys want to get down here." she said into her radio.

In the gateroom, Tali shrugged at TJ and Vanessa, before following Colonel Young and Wrai down to her quarters. She opened the door for them, and they filed in. Four faces turned to her, as she stared at the 9mm handgun.

"Well, Miss Scott, what do you have to say for yourself?" Wrai interrupted the silence.

"That I didn't do it?"

Young interrupted. "One of Eli's kinos saw her going down the corridor to her room, she has an alibi."

"The corridor to this room is on the way to Sergeant Spencer's quarters! For all we know, her brother gave her this gun 'to defend herself' and she realized that Spencer annoyed her! She went and shot him, and then claimed it to be suicide to get us off her trail."

"Oh, so now your the all-knowing one? Why didn't you just accuse me earlier, it would have saved you time!"

The argument was cut off as Eli and Matt raced into the room, having heard the shouting from where they had just finished searching.

Wrai was beginning to feel threatened - the military now outnumbered the civilians, three to two. Eli and Talitha were more neutral than anything. "I demand to use the communication stones to report the happenings to my superiors, immediately."

"Oh, you demand? Be my guest, I have to report too. Tali, for the sake of due process, please stay here. You can have visitors, though."

"Uh...what's going on?" Matt asked as Wrai and Young left the room. Tali sat down on her bed and burried her face in her hands.

"It seems that, since the gun was found in my purse, her Wraithness has decided that I'm a cold-blooded killer."

Dr. Park smiled at her. "Don't worry Tali. The girl humming Eli's theme song ("It's not my theme song!") way too loudly in the mess this morning was no killer. They don't have a case against you, so don't worry." she and Dunnings took the gun, and left.

Matt sat next to his sister, while Eli commandeered the chair. "Listen, sis, Eli brought up a good point earlier today. Whoever did take the gun from Spencer's quarters heard that you had deduced the suicide, and moved the gun from wherever they had orrigianally hidden it, and moved it here."

Tali nodded. "Yeah, that's a good theory. Tryin' to take my job, Math Boy?"

Eli grinned half-heartedly. "You bet."

Tali looked at him. "Do you think I did it, Eli?"

"No," he shook his head, "I'm trying to figure out who switched the gun, and who told them about you're involvement and subsequent declaration of suicide."

"Twenty bucks it was her Wraithness."

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

Eli sighed. The stupid IOA representative had been given authority to hold a de-facto trial, and he had been gong over and over the kino footage, but found nothing. Tali wasn't even being allowed out of her room, but Eli had decided to go and let her watch it on the kino's controller screen. It was only fair that she got to see her own trial. Meanwhile, Eli had been asked to comb through the kino footage and try to find out who had taken the gun. Matt was watching the trial, and Chloe had been asked by Colonel Young to represent Tali.

Eli grabbed his laptop and hard drive (the kino footage actually required a console to view and store the information, so Eli had set it up to automatically backup to his hard drive so he wouldn't be stuck in his room all day), and made his way to Tali's room. Ringing the bell, a bedraggled Talitha Elizabeth Scott made her appearance, letting him in and shutting the door again. Completely ignoring her guest, the forensic scientist went and laid face down on the bed.

"I'm so bored!"

Eli snorted. "The trial of the week is going on just two floors down, and you don't wan't to watch it?" He tossed the kino kontroller on the bed beside her, again commandeering the chair for himself.

"It's _my_ trial. Either Chloe'll do a good job in something she's never done before, or I'll be stuck here until we get home. I don't know if I want to watch it."

"Well, you can either not watch it, and not be prepared for whatever verdict they come to, and have no say in it, or you can watch through that and shout out your frusteration at the people themselves. And don't worry, Chloe'll do fine." he added defensively.

Rolling her eyes, Tali said, "Right, sorry. Just worrying about the possibility of being confined to the endless black chasm of abysmally eternal boredom here." she stood up, and walked over to Eli's - her - desk, and looked over his shoulder at the rapidly passing numbers and words, written in Ancient, that showed what a kino registered. Well, that was assuming that that was what the kino registered, and not really an Ancient porno novel describing that the method to ascention was, in fact, an intergalactic orgy, and not some scientific or religious thing. Tali couldn't read any Ancient other than what was in the Infirmary.

"I'm looking at the time codes. I've searched through all the footage with a fine tooth comb, and there's absolutely nothing." Eli answered her unspoken question, "the only option left is that there's a bug in this particular kino, that deleted some data. Unfortunately, you have to start from the very beginning when checking the time codes, so this might take a while."

"So, where are the time codes on this screen?"

Looking pleased that someone was actually interested in the method instead of just demanding answers, Eli quickly taught her basic Ancient numbers. So, after jotting them all down on a piece of paper, Tali dragged Eli and the laptop to the bed so they could both sit down to work. She quickly caught on to the patterns in the timecodes, so Eli split the screen in two segments, so that it would go twice as fast. The kino kontroller lay on the pillow, forgotten.

"_I think it's time we take a short recess. We'll meet back up in an hour."_

"I-I-I got it." Eli said suddenly, stunned. The screen suddenly changed back to it's singleness, and the gap in the time codes became apparent.

"We can't view it here. Come on." apparently forgetting the fact that Tali was in house arrest, he grabbed her wrist and made his way to the door.

"Uh, Eli? Remember? I can't leave the room."

The young genius urgently shrugged her off. "This'll exonerate you, I'm sure of it! Then, who cares if you went two corridors down? Come on!"

The duo made their way over to Eli's permanently open quarters. "Doesn't that ever bother you?" Tali absent mindedly asked, gesturing to the stuck door.

"No, not really. My mom and brother used to barge in all the time, it was like I didn't even have a door. Anyway, off topic."

They quickly activated the console that was in Eli's room, and the math boy typed away at something, when suddenly Spencer came on the screen.

Eli and Tali watched as he shot himself. Rush came into the room about five minutes later, saw the gun, and grabbed it. The kino followed the close organism, and watched as he put the gun in the air vent in Colonel Young's quarters. At that point, the bitter scientist spotted the little floating camera ball, swore veraciously, and grabbed it. The screen went blank.

Eli wasn't sure what to think when he realised he was happy about seeing Spencer shoot himself. It was solid proof that the girl beside him was innocent, but he shouldn't be happy to see a man die. However, the fact that the perpetrator of the framing was Rush, had them both speechless.

"Uh, C-Colonel Young," Eli spoke into the radio as Tali shakilly stole his seat next to the blank screen, "Could you come down here?"

"I'm on my way. What is it?" Young's gruff voice replied.

"J-Just get up here sir." Eli shut off the radio. Rush had managed to frame Tali for murder, just because her handy dandy forensic science degree interrupted his plans. Who knows what else he might do if he knew about what was going on now?

"Tali." Young seemed shocked that the woman had left her house arrest, "Shouldn't you be in your quarters?"

Eli jumped to her defense, seeing that she was still unsettled. "Colonel, w-we were there, but we came here to watch the new footage. I back up all the footage on my hard drive, and when we realised there was a gap in the time codes of the kino's database, we had to come here to see it." he said rapidly, "Tali's innocent, and her hypothesis about Spencer's death was one hundred per cent accurate."

"You know who interferred?"

He hit the play button, and let the militalistic man observe the happenings of the first suicide on Destiny.

Sighing, Young turned to Tali. "Well, he framed you. What do you think we should do?"

"Other than stopping the trial." Eli put in.

"Other than stopping the trial, which still has half an hour before resuming." Young corrected.

"...Don't let him know about it. Say the footage was destroyed or something, but it won't do anyone any good to let Rush know that we know."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

He nodded. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. Tali, go back to your room - relax, cool off a bit, something. Eli, in ten minutes, call Scott, Wrai, Rush, and I here and say you found something, but don't show them Rush taking the kino. Make up some excuse, but let's keep this on the QT. Act as if the first thing you did since watching this was call us. Don't mention Tali, Rush, or me. Not even to Scott and Greer?" he asked her.

Tali shook her head. "Them least of all. They'll go ballistic."

Young nodded, turned around and left, with a reminder to Eli, "Ten minutes."

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

It was all over. Nobody was any the wiser, although Eli had seen the relieved looked that had crossed Rush's face when he had stuttered out that the files had been corrupted. Tali was welcomed back with open arms, only a few people brave enough to come and apologize for not taking her character into account when she was accused on being a psychopathic cold-blooded killer. Only Young, Eli, and Tali knew that Rush was more of a threat than they had origianally expected; an enemy with no morals was dangerous. The fact that they still didn't know who had told Rush to change the gun's location told them that they had another enemy, although everyone seemed to accept Tali when she said that there was no telling who had handled the gun - there were far too many prints.

They had encountered an alien spacecraft on the planet, but hadn't been able to stay long enough for anything but a brief look. Rush seemed particularily upset by this.

Eli was curious about something though. With that in mind, he made his way to Tali's room. The reason she had chosen this room, despite it's small size, was because of the wonderful view that was seen in a full-length window. She was watching the light show that FTL provided.

"Hi Tal."

"Oh hey Eli. Did you need something?" she turned away from the flashing colours.

He sat down on the chair. "I was wondering why you decided to let Rush off. I agree with you, but I was wondering why."

"Two reasons, really. First, however much I may personally dislike him, no good would come from telling on him. You and him are the only ones that have the slightest clue what's going on here, and it would over work you to an unhealthy point if he were to be restricted to quarters or something." Tali smiled, leaning against the window.

Grinning in thanks, Eli asked "And the other reason?"

Sitting down on the bed across from him, she answered, "As I'm sure you've noticed, everyone on this ship seems to be plotting against each other. We're going to get thrown into it eventually, whether we like it or not. I thought that it might be better to have a defense ready, just in case."

Eli frowned. "That's a bit of a pessimistic view."

"It's nicer to think of it as a more realistic view."

Snorting at the irony, Eli took a moment to think. It wasn't like they were going to be blackmailing Rush anytime soon, even though Rush had proven himself capable of more deplorable acts. "Well...it is a good idea to be prepared."

Tali nodded. "A good defense is a good defense. Rush has proven himself to be dangerous. It'll be like keeping a can of mace in case of rabid dogs." Eli nodded in agreement. "Actually, I'm curious about something too. We could've kept Rush's involvement completely to ourselves. Why'd you call Young?"

The genius shrugged. "We had to stop the trial. Nobody would believe you, since you were the accused, and even though the scientists and a few of the military have started looking past my age, nobody else is. Young's the only one with the proper authority."

"Good point. Anyway, want to go play poker?"

"Yeah, sure."


	2. Chapter 2

**I realised that I had the wrong episode name last time; this story will follow the events from Justice to _Faith_, and then branch out on it's own. OrionTheHunter, I appreciate your review.**

**Happy Reading**

_**The Destiny Chronicles**_

_Chapter Two_

Tali sighed as she walked down the corridor to the apple core. She rarely had reason to enter the fruity control room, but Eli had failed to show up for his breakfast in the mess. This, being a rarity in itself, lent credence to the theory that he was short on caffeine, so the forensic scientist also had a steeming mug of the terran delicacy in her other hand.

Turning the corridor, she was surprised to hear shouting. So surprised that, at first, she didn't notice herself getting lighter and lighter. To be hearing Rush yelling at Eli (or anyone else, for that matter) had become common place on the Destiny, but to hear the younger mathematical genius shouting back was something else entirely. Stepping into the apple core, she would have laughed herself into oblivion at the sight before her, had she not started floating into the air.

"Eli! Get to your console!" Dr. Rush, apparently, didn't like floating around in zero gravity. Rush was floating around sideways, kicking and waving his arms, trying to create momentum. The doctor seemed to be failing miserably. Given Dr. Rush's usual sarcastic composure, this was a sight to see.

Eli on the other hand, was trying to reach a slowly drifting kino kontroller. Being that it was on the other side of the room, and Eli himself was completely upside down, he also was failing miserably.

This was too much to resist. Tali reached out and kicked the ground, sending herself speeding into the room. Twirling around, she started singing, "Da na nuh na nuh, NA NA, NUH NUH"

Eli was of the opinion that weightlessness was one of the coolest things in the universe, but didn't want to say it with Rush's current attitude. It was a great way to reduce stress, have fun, and just relax. They should have a zero gravity room.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a childish giggle. He didn't even know that Tali _could_ giggle - she always just laughed right out.

Giggling maddly, Tali continued her activities.

"Well," Eli drawled, still upside down, "I'd say thanks for the food and coffee, but thanks for the food."

The forensic scientist had been having a blast making a smiley face in Eli's coffee, but now turned and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, but it's fun! Try it!"

Shrugging, Eli started work on an intricate design in the ration paste.

"What is that?"

"It's a kino."

"No, it's just a circle."

"Kinos are, in 2D, circles."

Rush just smacked his face in his hand. "Eli," he said, trying not to yell, "Please return the gravity to normal before I see _my_ breakfast again."

Sighing in regret, Eli glanced at Tali, and she pushed the young man over to his console, and pressed a few buttons. While he was working, Tali hit the ceiling from pushing Eli, where she decided that the coffee and food would be best replaced in their proper containers, and just as she had done so, the gravity came back on, and she tumbled to the floor in a very dignified pile. Thankfully, the 'food' and hot beverage landed elsewhere. Eli snickered.

"Thanks for the warning, Eli."

"Anytime."

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

"I don't know how you do it, Talitha," TJ muttered to herself from her little office, "but you're already well on your way to becoming a fully qualified medic."

The woman in question did not appear to hear her, as she was rather busy taping up a small gash from some random crew member. TJ had never been so relieved to have help in her entire life; she had been getting way too stressed out, but having Tali here cut her work in half, and decreased her worry. Before, she'd always been worried about someone she cared about getting injured while she was stuck in here, but the two had arranged that Tali would start taking small patrols around the experimental parts of the ship, on the lookout for anyone that needed help. There had already been one incident where, if he had gotten help fast enough, a crewman would have survived. TJ didn't want that to ever happen, but at least one of them had to be where the majority of the people were - the infirmary was centrally located. It was two floors below the apple core, two floors above the gateroom, right in the middle of the quarters that had been discovered thus far, and on the same floor as the mess, kitchen, several research rooms, and the hydroponics lab.

Suddenly, their world gave a small lurch, as the now-familiar feeling of the ship dropping out of FTL A few minutes later, Colonel Young's gruff voice crackled over her radio.

"TJ, how's Tali doing? In her lessons, I mean?"

"Well, sir, she's definitely learning. And fast. I've set up the lessons so that she can learn at her own pace, but at this rate, she'll probably be graduating as a fully quallified field medic in about a week and a half, maybe two...which I can not believe. She can deal with minor breaks, moderate cuts, and low burns. So far the only roadblock is that she is quite literally sickened by the thought of stitches, but I believe that we'll be able to get past that in time." 

"Great. Send her down to the gateroom with the proper supplies in five minutes. She's going on the away team down to the planet."

TJ was startled, ignoring the distant "SIR?!" from the over-protective, listening in brother. Not that Tali wasn't ready, but she was also defenseless. The girl couldn't aim a gun to save her life! Tamara Johansen had learned to care for another person, and she didn't want to see her hurt. Who knows what they would find on that planet? On the other hand though, she might end up being able to save people, and she knew that Matt wouldn't let anything happen to his little sis if at all possible.

"Yes sir. She'll be down in five minutes." the medic spoke quietly into the radio. "Tali!" she called, letting go of the radio button.

"Yes?" Tali somehow was right behind her. Hadn't she been working over by the main area a moment ago?

TJ resisted the urge to wrap the redhead in a hug. "Suit up. You're going on the away team to the planet."

Tali grinned excitedly. She had asked Young to be on an away team. "Really? What will I need?"

"Just bring a basic med pack. The Colonel wouldn't ask you to go on a team unless the planet seemed relatively safe when you're just starting. Go. You've got three minutes to meet Colonel Young in the gateroom."

Tali quickly gave her mentor a hug, surprising the elder woman. Grabbing a med pack, she swung it over her shoulders, and clipped her water bottle onto her belt loop. The young woman ran out of the Infirmary, wanting to make it on time but didn't leave without sending a quick wave to TJ.

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

"Sir, is it really necessary to send Tali with us?" Matthew Scott walked next to his superior, putting the rifle strap over his shoulder.

"TJ told me that she's nearly a full medic. It's time for her to get some field experience." 

"But sir..."

"Enough, Lt. She's going, and that's final."

Matt's heart dropped at hearing that. Whenever they had had a game of darts, or played with water guns as kids, Tali couldn't hit the broad side of a barn even if it jumped out at her, and ran in front of the stream. Really, anything that required her to shoot something, Tali found some way to miss completely. This gave him a little worry for when she started giving out shots to people who needed them in her little medic gig. Suddenly, he felt oh so relieved to be the ranking second in command officer - it would allow him to go on the mission and look out for her. Normally, he hated the sudden strain and responsibility, but Chloe always helped him to relax. She would always sit with him while he just ranted on about this or that, and even if she wasn't listening most of the time, it was nice to have her there.

"I'm here sir!" Tali had arrived, excited and full of energy, and interrupting his train of thought. Matt sighed.

Young hid a smile. The girl was so green it was almost funny, but at the same time, her naivety was refreshing. He hated to quell her exuberance. "Tali, please remember that this a mission, not a trip to-"

"Sirs! You've got to see this!"

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

"What's going on?" Their commander barged into the apple core, only to see his two scientists staring at the viewscreen, dumbfounded.

"I-I don't know! It just appeared there!" Eli answered, looking away from the screen, and going to his console. He started reading some readings from the system. It was actually miraculously lucky for him that the ancient Ancient dialogue was remarkably similar to the dumbed down language that Rush had incorporated into the impossible to win game that he'd won.

"Can we communicate with it?"

"We do have broadcast capabilites, but"

"Wait," Rush intervened, "how do we know these aliens aren't hostile? How do we know that they would even understand us?"

"They could also be friendly, and wondering the exact same thing about us." Young countered. "Eli, send a message. Introduce us."

Eli, ever the optimist, wanted to believe that they could get some allies out of this mess. After all, didn't they deserve a break? After a small hesitation, Eli went to quickly type out a friendly message. Hi, we're humans from Earth. We're peaceful. Who are you?

"They're launching smaller ships." Rush announced. The viewscreen showed several little red dots emerging, like ants from sand.

Young turned to Eli. "What did you say to them?"

"Nothing that would make them attack!"

"Eli!"

"J-Just uh Hi, we're humans from Earth, we're peaceful, who're you?"

Young turned on his radio. "Scott, Greer, get in that shuttle now!"

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

"Scott, Greer, get in that shuttle now!"

Matt glanced at Ron, and they both left the observation room, where they had been gawking with several crewmembers. They waved to a shouted "Be careful!" and ran to the shuttle. Every second counts.

Entering the Ancient contraption, they strapped themselves in and set off.

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

Tali was worried about them, but knew that they were the most trained for this job. She couldn't help yelling for them to be careful, as if they wouldn't. But she still felt better when Matt and Ron waved back, or briefly looked back at her, in Ron's case.

The group in the observation room watched in horrible fascination and awe as the lone shuttle went off to face the many others. From what they could see of the battle, the shuttle was much more durable, but the aliens had numbers on their side. Finally, the congregation of people figured out that standing in front of a giant window during a battle was not their most brilliant idea. Tali and Vanessa started herding people towards the door, as they heard a small explosion and shout.

Turning around, Tali grabbed the med pack that she still carried for the mission, and immediately began treating the writhing man in the hallway. He had severe burns, but she quickly gave him a small amount of morphine, and began treating the burns that she could.

Unfortunately, getting the dying man to the infirmary was impossible, as the electrical surges through the hallway were completely unpredictable. All Tali could do is try her best, take away the pain, and reassure the man.

"I'm not gonna live, aren't I?" he rasped, blood coming up and spilling from the side of his mouth. It didn't make much difference in his appearance, with the bloody burns on his face.

"Not with that attitude."

"When we get home, could you tell my wife and kids that I love them? I love them so much..."

"You'll be able to tell them yourself." Don't cry Tal, don't cry.

After coughing, the man laughed. Actually smiled. "Tell them..." his eyes closed.

A tear made it's way down the almost-medics face. "I will" she choked out. He took his final breath, and was still.

"Tali, I need help down here - some of the others are trying to help, but I need you in the infirmary now!" TJ's voice crackled over the radio. Tali had been so engrossed in her patient, she hadn't noticed Vanessa turning the power off so people could cross.

"I'll be right down."

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

TJ frowned at the voice on the radio - she sounded different, was she okay? Unfortunately, the infirmary was quickly errupting into meyham, and she had no time to ponder her student's voice.

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

Chloe Armstrong gasped as the ship around her took a horrible lurch. She decided to go investigate the disturbance, despite her unarmed state, and complete lack of self-defense skills. Walking confidently out of her door, she turned and walked down the hall. Nodding importantly at an airman as she passed, she stopped and looked around as she heard a hissing sound. When seeing nothing coming from any of the other halls, it occured to her that the only other direction was to look up. Doing so, she jumped back as a large, circular chunk of the hull nearly crushed her. So very nearly.

Deciding that it couldn't possibly be anything dangerous, she stepped onto the chunk of hull, and looked up, even though she couldn't see anything with the bright, blinding light in her face.

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

Opening a hatch, Tali's breath left her. Literally. For the second time that day, her feet involuntarily left the floor, but with more of a pulling motion. Looking towards the source she stretched out her arms in horror as the abysmal depths of space leered back at her through a gaping hole in the hull. A second before she would have spent her next few moments of life drifting aimlessly, the ships shields came into affect.

Crashing to the floor, Tali shook her head. She had no time to collect herself - she had heard a small thump. Shakilly getting to her feet, feeling a slight sting in her ankle, she made her way to the collapsed airman, and quickly woke him up. He wasn't hurt, just low on oxygen.

"Airman! What happened here?" she lightly shook his arm.

He coughed. "Aliens cut a hole...*cough* took Chloe..."

Eyes widening, she grabbed her radio. "Eli, tell them to stop firing! The aliens have Chloe."

"What!"

"I'm here with Airman" Tali glanced at the man, who said his name, " Airman Brooks, and he saw the whole thing. The aliens cut a hole in the hull and grabbed her. I have to get to the infirmary, though, so stop firing."

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

As if things weren't already bad enough, now Chloe is also captured. Manning Rush's console with one hand was tricky, but was working thus far. The elder genius had dragged Eli over to a console in a smaller auxilliary control room, jokingly deemed by Eli as the apple seed, to be able to access some weapons, when a hole was cut in the hull. Two aliens dropped down, grabbed the stunned Rush, and fired some sort of rifle at Eli. The wavering light blue beam had hit the Math Boy's arm, which he had thrown up to cover his face. After being blasted back, he held on for dear life as the ship left, decompressing the room as he went. Since the apple seed's door had been open, everyone in the core saw the happenings and felt the evacuating oxygen.

Now, he had a very annoying, stinging burn on his right arm.

"Uh, Colonel? Tali called, and C-Chloe's been taken too."

Young's eyes widened, and quickly told Eli to call Scott. "Lt, cease fire! Rush and Chloe are on one of those ships!"

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

The infirmary was a mess. TJ was working her hardest, but had to leave the majority of the patients up to the 'nurses' who had volunteered, and were sloppily patching up wounds, many with just basic first aid skills. Tali entered, and was very soon bogged down with patients and correcting the mistakes.

Finally, things seemed to slow down.

Talitha decided that time would be well spent reassuring patients. With that in mind, she grabbed her radio from her belt loop. "Eli, it's Tali. What's going on up there?"

His voice seemed strained. "They've ceased fire for the moment. Colonel Young's going to try and use the communication stones to save Chloe and Rush. I plan to watch from the kino."

Tali frowned. "Are you in pain, Eli?"

"It's nothing..."

"Eli!" she said warningly.

"I-I might've gotten shot by an alien ray gun!"

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

"I-I might've gotten shot by an alien ray gun!" Eli yanked the radio away as a _very_ mad female voice erupted.

"**ELI WALLACE GET YOUR MATHY ASS DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!!!"**

"Yes ma'am." Eli muttered quickly. Riley, beside him, snickered.

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

If TJ had ever been surprised by anything, it would be by Tali's hidden yelling skills. "You know Tali," she said, rubbing her ears, "I think the whole ship heard you."

Eli showed up in less than two minutes, impressive, and remained there for another sixteen minutes and forty-eight seconds, listening to Tali angrilly lecture him on never waiting to get medical treatment ever again, or else he would find himself being hung by his own intestines, his enormously stupid brain being dragged out through his ears, yadda yadda yadda, being surgically unnable to have children, ect. ect.

He snuck out when Tali went to go and get something for his brand new sling, not waiting for her to come back. He would recieve hell for it later, but he had promised pretty much everyone around that he would be in the apple core after twenty minutes. Whenever Eli Wallace said the words "I promise" he meant them. He hadn't promised to stay in the infirmary.

Having watched on the kino kontroller, recieving even more flak for not paying attention to Tal's slightly scary, but very creative threats, Eli knew exactly what had happened thus far, and raced to the apple core to hear the results.

Unfortunately, the enemy chose this moment to resume it's attack, presumably having discovered the Colonel's presence. The young genius could only hope that this meant he had at least been able to free her. The ship lurched, and Eli dragged his attention back to getting weapons online. Young's voice crackled over his radio.

"Eli, get the main weapon online! Fire on the big ship!"

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

Matt, supporting most of Chloe's weight, made his way to the infirmary. The ship had jumped away, much to the surprise of absolutely everyone. The aliens hardly had any damage, so there would be a lot of speculation of _why_ they would leave when they were about to win. Matt himself was curious - perhaps they had a limited power source, like the Destiny? However, when he entered the sterile room, he had something else to occupy his mind.

"...WALLACE HOW _DARE_ YOU SNEAK AWAY FROM ME? YOU REQUIRE MEDICAL ATTENTION YOU ... YOU ... YOU STUPID _MALE_! _'OH, I MIGHT'VE GOTTEN HIT BY AN ALIEN RAY GUN'_, DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THE SIDE EFFECTS OF THAT SHOT COULD'VE BEEN? NO, YOU DON'T! FOR ALL ANY OF US KNOW YOU COULD'VE GOTTEN AN INFECTION AND DIED! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED I WAS - I TURN AROUND FOR ONE SECOND, AND POOF, THERE'S GOES THE IDIOT MATH BOY -"

Unable to keep his laughter to himself anymore, when taking into account Eli's hand-in-the-cookie-jar expression, and the quiet snickers of the infirmary's population, Matt started laughing uproarously. Eli's attention snapped over to him, and he said, "Chloe, are you ok?"

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

"Eli?"

The genius cringed, expecting another tirade. After leaving the infirmary, he had gone to his quarters to hide. He must have missed the screen that would have shown her - he had begun to set up his surveillance system.

Tali grimmaced when she saw him cringe. "I'm sorry."

This halted Eli's thought processes. "Uh - what?"

Tali spoke up quietly. "I'm sorry for being so hard on you earlier. You're a grown man, and responsible enough to make your own decisions regarding medical care. I was being disrespectful to you, and I'm sorry."

"Sit down, Tal." the forensic scientist walked over, head down, and sat on the bed across from him. Eli quickly checked his console, and saw nobody coming. "First of all, I'm not mad. I know you meant the best."

"That makes me feel better. Thanks, and I am sorry."

"Don't be. Secondly, I'm wondering what made you react so ... extremely. You're usually pretty cheerful."

Tali briefly glanced at Eli's console, and he shook his head to show that no one was coming. "I've had a hard day. I thought I was finally going to see another planet in this galaxy, and then some nasty aliens come up and attack. Then, I'm unable to help someone when it really counts, and they end up dying because of my lack of ability, then my blood brother and my virtual brother nearly get themselves killed in the shuttle while I can just watch, and then finally you go and get yourself shot!"

Eli started to get worried when tears pooled in her eyes. "Hey, hey, don't cry on me," he immediately moved to sit beside her and wrapped his good arm around her, "there'll be other days! Let's see... if Colonel Young thought you were good enough to go on an away mission, then you'll get another chance! Hell, if I can go on a mission, a medic in training can. I bet you'll go to the next planet we come to. Now, what's this about a lack of ability?"

Sobbing lightly, Tali leaned her head on Eli's shoulder. "I was leaving the observation room with some others, when a surge electrocuted one woman, and badly burned the airman. I could only reach the airman, so I went to try and help. He... didn't make it. I did everything I could, but I just wasn't good enough. I didn't know how to treat burns of that magnitude. If I had known, maybe he would've made it! He had a wife and kids, and now they don't have a husband or father, all because I wasn't good enough!"

"Tal, you're in training. It's not your fault, and at least you gave that man some comfort before he died. Talk to TJ about this. She'll probably turn it into one of her psyche evals, but I think she'd be able to help you more than I can. Just remember that it's not your fault."

The woman sighed, and nodded, not wanting to bother to speak. "Now, what else was there ... oh yes, Matt and Greer jumping onto the shuttle. You know that they're the most qualified, if any of us can be called qualified for the jobs we're doing. Besides, can you imagine what they would feel like trapped on this ship? A lot of the military were unable to do anything but excort people to their quarters, and patrol. Their both perfectly capable of making their own decisions. I don't mean to be a downer, but there's nothing you can do about that. Right now, you are training to be able to patch them up when they come home. It's great that you were able to take the initiative and ask TJ for lessons. Yes, there will be a lot of people depending on you, but I'm confident you're up to the task."

This got him a small grin from the distraught Tali. "And, of course, I'll have the eternally infamous Math Boy supporting me."

"Always." he gave her shoulder a friendly squeeze. "Now, I'm cautious about getting on the topic, but what's this about me getting shot? There's no way that that was your fault."

"No, that one was the Andorian knock-off's fault."

"There skin was clear, not blue. And I didn't see any antenae."

"They looked blueish enough to warrant the knock-off, and who says the don't have antenae elsewhere on their bodies?"

Eli scoffed. "Everyone knows that if an alien has antenae, they have to be on top of the head. If they're anywhere else they're called feelers."

"No, they're not."

"Yes they are."

"No they're not."

"Yes they are."

Tali narrowed her eyes. "We'll settle this the real way ... with the internet when we get home." she laughed.

**-O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O--O-**

Eli sighed, satisfied as the final kino floated into place. He know had 54 of the floating camera balls hidden in strategic places throughout the known public places of the ship - quarters and showers had been neglected for fear of repercussions if they were caught. Even experimental areas had been included, them being the perfect place for someone to have a chat. If anyone saw a kino floating around in the room they were in, it would just appear to be in search mode, and merely try to delete the footage in that one kino.

Thinking of, Eli went into the password corrected files, and called Colonel Young. He and Tali had discussed not informing the Colonel, but eventually they decided that it would put Eli in an even higher confidence with the gruff man, which they might need someday, more than blackmail against those conspiring with Wraythness. After all, they would both rather get their way through more peaceful means. Also, Tali wanted to stay in favour of the military - she didn't want Matt and Ron to have to choose sides.


	3. Chapter 3

**This chapter will cover the events from 'Divided' to halfway through 'Faith'. I do warn you, Divided was my favourite episode, so I go into a lot of detail with it – sorry if that bores someone. Afterward, let the AU begin. It also contains a nice brother/sister scene. As such, there will be a little religion talk, and I know that bothers some people. With such characters as Matt Scott to deal with, that is inevitable, but I'm sorry if you're offended. **

**Also, I recently located exact transcripts of the episodes, so recognizable material that helps me in remembering when a scene actually happens, and how to alter it here accordingly, belongs to GateWorld dot com. Also, there is now an update counter on my profile page. It will show the amount of words so far for each new chapter as I write them. This is for you 261 visitors to this story from last month.**

**Happy Reading,**

**Legend**

**The Destiny Chronicles**

Chapter Three

TJ glanced around, finding the infirmary to be blissfully empty. A woman with a goal, she strode over to her assistant. Tali had put her bright red hair into a pony tail with a scrap of cloth, finding that having it down only got in the way of her work. Despite her best efforts, though, a few strands still escaped.

"Tali, could you come into my office for a moment?" she said, trying not to sound too worried.

The forensic scientist turned medic-in-training looked at her bemusedly, but nodded nonetheless. Following TJ into the small office, Tali sat on the other chair, and waited. She had wanted to talk to TJ herself, taking Eli's advice, but hadn't gotten a chance.

"I've noticed that you seem to be down this morning, Tali, and was wondering if you wanted to talk about it." TJ didn't want this to sound like one of the unanimously dreaded psyche evals. Their hatred of them was probably the one thing the entire crew could agree on.

"Actually, yeah. I've been meaning to talk to you ever since yesterday, but never got a chance." Tali bit her lip and wrung her hands nervously. She hadn't considered until now the thought that TJ would be disappointed in her. Her mentor was amazingly skilled in the areas of medicine, incredibly adaptable to every imaginable circumstance, and had a huge amount of Talitha's respect. To disappoint her would be horrible.

But, Eli hadn't been wrong yet.

"Yesterday, during the attack, I was in the observation room when the power surge hit that corridor. I couldn't reach the woman in the hallway itself, only a badly burned airman. So, I got to work. Horrible burns covered the entire left side of his body, and I think his lung had been damaged."

"Airman Duncan." TJ stated. She had put the sheet over his head, but, due to the severity of his wounds, hadn't noticed the obvious signs of attempted help. Suddenly, TJ understood Tali's less than chipper mood. Losses were always hard.

"I-I did the best I could! He had a family, a wife and kids! And now, they don't have a husband and father because of me. That woman is now a widower, and those kids with grow up without a daddy, all because I don't know enough! All because I wasn't quick enough, I wasn't smart enough, _I _wasn't enough!"

TJ waited silently, remembering her first loss and subsequent breakdown. She had been in Tali's position, a brand new medic, and the man she had been working on had a huge slash across his abdomen. If she'd had enough materials, she could've saved him, but, unfortunately she had not believed she'd need anything more than the most basic first aid kit in her purse on a trip to the local bookstore. She had been wrong. She spoke to the Chief Medical Officer at the base she had been assigned to, and felt much better afterward.

Tali ranted on for a little while longer about what had happened. TJ just let her get it all out, before putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, and saying, "Tali, I saw his wounds. Even I wouldn't have been able to help him - the moment he got hit with that explosion, he was dead. It was just a matter of how long. The fact that he got someone to agree to his last wish probably gave him lots of comfort."

The redhead nodded, and swiped a few tears away.

"We can't save everyone Talitha. What our job is, is to help those that can be saved. Give comfort to those who can't. It never gets easier - losing someone - but we learn how to move on. We just make sure to learn from all our experiences, so we can help the next time."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"...so I was just thinking that-"

"No, I completely agree with you. It's a great idea." the dark-haired woman quickly placated, "We just need to make a list of those we think would be interested."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Tali, can I talk to you for a minute?" Matt grabbed her arm as she passed by him in the hall.

"Yeah, sure. What's wrong?"

"Uh...not where one of Eli's kinos are always floating around." the soldier looked around nervously, having spotted one of the infinitely useful camera balls floating down the hallway.

Casting a sharp, curious glance to her brother, Talitha led the way to her room. She knew that Eli had hidden none of them in there - she checked. Sitting down on the bed, she gestured for Matt to talk.

"You okay, Matt?"

"Yeah, it's not me. I'm worried about Chloe."

Tali sighed. "Did she have another nightmare?"

"How'd you know about those?"

Tali shrugged. "She's been horribly depressed. She's not participating in any of the activities anymore, she stopped her yoga sessions. She's also so mad at people for acting normal that she's glaring at everyone who dares giggle in her presence."

"Hey, now,"

Slightly rolling her eyes, Tali said "Right, bad taste, sorry. So, she's been having nightmares. I hate to say it Matt, but I wouldn't want to suggest a sedative of any type. We're horribly low on-"

"I wasn't asking for a medical solution Talitha." The use of her full name made Tali really take into account the worried appearance of her brother's face, mainly the dark circles under his eyes.

His stare was intense. "I want my sister's advice. I've been trying to help all I can, but either she doesn't want help, or I'm doing something wrong. I keep telling her that I want to help, but she just huffs and leaves."

Tali smiled warmly. Being without a mother, she had been the only female presence with the priest who had raised them. Father knew nothing of girls, so Matt had always (although very embarrassed at first) come to her when wondering what went on in their minds. "Well, Matt, maybe she just needs to be alone."

"Sure doesn't act like it."

"Pretending I didn't hear that," she sent a grin his way, "everyone deals with stress in different ways. And sometimes, others just can't help. She might have to deal with this alone."

"But I just feel so helpless!" he suddenly screamed out.

Wincing at the volume, Tali jumped up and wrapped him in a hug, which he instantly returned. Pretending to ignore the liquid dripping on her head, "There's a reason for everything Matthew, even if we don't know it. Trust in Him. For some reason, this needs to happen to Chloe. If you're supposed to help, He'll give you an opportunity."

Releasing his sister, Matt quickly swiped at his eyes. "You're right, sis." giving her shoulder a squeeze in thanks, the soldier in him immediately began to get rid of the nice, sensitive atmosphere, "Too bad you went to forensics. You'd of made a great nun."

Laughing, Tali sat back down on her bed. "Sorry. Mysteries are just the stronger pull."

"Yeah, there's not really much in that department here. What's going on with your job, anyway?"

"You didn't know? After you told Colonel Young that you could get a forensic scientist in, yet not tell someone _outside_ outside the program about it, I was offered a job by the military. Better pay, more interesting work, and a chance to work closer to my brother. I accepted, quit my old job. Depending on my job at Icarus, and how I did, I was to start up a small SG Forensics department."

Matt's eyes widened. "Wow, are you kidding?"

Just then, Matt's radio came to life, full of static and the Colonel's voice. "Lt. Scott, Eli, come in."

Immediately hitting the button to report in, an instinct born of long practice, Matt reported that he wasn't, in fact, in a broom closet screwing a fellow officer. Well, not in those words.

Eli reported in with the absent minded voice that showed he was absorbed in some fascinating Ancient discovery, and only paying half attention.

Unfortunately, many people on the ship had quickly learned to recognize the young genius' vacant tone, which was proved as Colonel Young snapped, "Eli, pay attention! Get a kino ready, we think that there might be one of the alien ships on the hull. Scott, go to the depressurized hallway and let the kino out."

"Sure."

"Yes sir."

Giving Tali a quick smile, Matt left. Just as he was turning the now-familiar corner, though, he was nearly run down by two fast walking females. He couldn't get a good look at their faces, and, seeing as they all but ran down to Tali's room, and decided that putting a kino outside cold wait a few minutes. He waited around the corner - he couldn't see them, but at least they couldn't see him either.

After a few moments, Tali opened her door. One voice, surprisingly familiar, said, "Tali, we have a proposition for you. It will completely change our lives on this ship, for the better. We think you'll be interested."

The other voice spoke up. Matt recognized it as belonging to Camille Wray. Briefly he wondered what on Destiny that her wraythness could have in common with Tali, but soon had to listen. Wray had a very quiet voice.

"May I call you Talitha?" Matt assumed that there was a nod, for Wray continued, "Talitha, I'm sure you understand that we need to stick together. Our plan will help facilitate that, completely re-working the social order of the ship, for the better. I think we'd all benefit from it."

"May we come in? It would be better for all of our sakes if we were in a more secure area." Matt felt like he should recognize this voice. It was nagging at the back of his mind, but he was startled out of his reverie by Eli's voice on the radio.

"Hey Scott, where are you? The kino's waiting at the hallway."

Oh well. "Yeah, I'll be there in a minute." Straining to hear something, he got nothing but silence. The three had moved to Tali's room. Oh well, he would have to ask Tali later.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Eli waited the kino's screen in rapt fascination. The outside of the Destiny, looked so much like the Prometheus back in the Milky Way - well, assuming that the game had been an accurate portrayal. It made him think that Earth had a chance of catching up with the Ancients. Maybe not in his lifespan, or even the next generation. But they were on the right track. After all, all humans are supposed to have a _Destiny_. Eli quietly snickered at his own pun.

Scott's voice on the radio broke through his thoughts. "Kino's through."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Tali sighed as she walked into the mess, thinking of the commitment she'd made. They really did have a good idea, but on this ship she was closest to Matt, Ron, and Eli - she didn't enjoy keeping secrets from all of them.

On the other hand, she believed in the idea.

Tali had twenty minutes before she had to meet TJ for another lesson, and wanted to grab a quick lunch, and maybe pop into the apple core. She was almost sad that the ship was out of FTL. The flashing colours, showing all the lights that they were surpassing, were simply beautiful. It was then, gazing at them out her window, that she was infinitely glad she had her camera phone in her purse when she grabbed it, seeing as the colours were so unique that they couldn't possibly be recreated in anything else.

Sitting down with the gourmet ration paste - it was a little thin today - Tali watched as Ron came into the mess on his break. Spotting her, the sergeant quietly asked for a private word. Scooping up her bowl and the shallow indent in a metal paddle that they called a spoon, the almost - medic followed him out to the hall.

"I've been thinking, Tali. You're a perfectionist."

Tali raised an eyebrow, mouth occupied with the 'food', asking a question.

Ron had a way of unnerving people with that quiet stare of his. This wasn't an angry one - it demanded respect and the truth. This was the Ron that made Tali respected above pretty much everyone else, bar her brother. She had known Ron ever since she started university - his marine base had been in the same city, and he had helped her out of a jam. They had kept in contact, and it had given Matt and Ron common ground to start their friendship on.

"You wouldn't of stopped until you knew who framed you."

Tali's reminiscent thought processes halted. For the first time in a really long time, she didn't know what to say.

Observing that Ron wasn't about to let up, she started. "I know who did it. But it won't do any good to make the knowledge more public than it already is."

"What in the hell do you mean it won't do any good?"

"Voice down, please Ron. What would happen? The person would be confined to quarters. Wow. That sure helps everyone. I'll let the system deal with it when we get home; right now, this ship doesn't need any more conflict." Tali tried to keep her voice down, and discreetly glanced at the nearby air vent. She had walked in while Eli was planting kinos, and he had told her his idea. She now waved to all the kinos, or made funny faces, but only when nobody was around.

"Conflict ain't always such a bad thing." Ron's voice was still stressed, but not immediately dangerous. "What if something happens again? Nobody would believe you if you're accused again. Tell me who it is."

Tali sighed, but immediately thought of an answer that would both appease the man in front of her, and keep Eli's knowledge a secret. Though she knew that Eli had some respect for Ron, he was scarred of him. Pretty much everyone was. As such, the math boy had been trying to get on the better side of Ron, and Tali knew that after the arm/puddle incident, Ron had gained some respect for Eli. "Colonel Young knows. If something happens to me, just ask him, okay?"

Ron sighed. He knew why she didn't want to tell him; she didn't think he could control his temper. She did have good reason to think that, he grudgingly admitted to himself. And if Colonel Young knew, he could live with that. "I don't like this." he warned.

She smiled sadly at him. "I know." Becoming gloomy, she said, "Now, I have to go to Hydroponics. TJ thinks that I can help with the plants..."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Easily keeping pace with the Colonel, Matt allowed his thoughts to wonder. Maybe Chloe just did need to sort through things herself. He supposed it wasn't _impossible_ that someone could seek physical comfort without mental and spiritual. He didn't understand it, but everyone was entitled to their quirks. If she wanted his help, she'd ask for it.

But the pilot stopped in his tracks as Chloe came into sight. Talking to Rush.

What on Ea – _Destiny_ – could they have to talk about? It appeared as if Rush was reassuring a nervous Chloe. So, she could talk to him about her nightmares, but not himself? Yes, the doctor had been the one to rescue her, and had been a prisoner too, but... Rush was Rush. He was necessary, but had proved to be a very dangerous classic Machiavellian.

"Any time now, Lieutenant."

"Yes sir." Taking his eyes away from the pair, he continued on.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Eli smiled at Chloe. He had to admit, it felt nice when she came to him for help. She was so pretty and nice. Of course, when she needed help it wasn't nice that she _needed_ help, but it still made him feel ... manly when it was _him_ that she came to. Don't get him wrong, the math genius thought Scott was a great guy, and didn't want him unhappy, but that didn't mean he couldn't wish that Chloe was his.

"There it is." he said, gesturing to the screen with his good arm. Tali had said that if he kept his arm relatively inactive for the next three days, he could take the sling off.

"How long has it been on the ship?" For some reason she seemed really nervous.

Quietly sighing, Eli responded, all the while lamenting his being deemed a 'great friend' during Chloe's drunken stupor. She would never be nervous because of his presence. And, of course, everyone is truthful when they're drunk. It's like a rule.

He was always the 'great friend'.

Never the crush, never the boyfriend, never the lover. All throughout high school, everyone but the nerds thought that he was gay, just because a lot of the girls in the class were friends with him. He thoroughly out-smarted all the nerds at some point in his high school career, so they didn't like to hang out with him either. It was always the hot girls, but they never wanted to go out with him. No, he was just the sounding board, the guy's perspective, the 'great friend'.

An explosion caught his attention, and his attention turned back to Chloe. "That's it. They can't get to us any more."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"I'm telling you, I won't be able to remember any of it!"

"You'll be fine. It's just plants."

Tali stopped, grabbing TJ's arm to halt her. "Every single plant I have ever tried to raise has died. If I walk in that room, all that is green will shrivel and die in my wake, and we won't have any plants at all."

"What a shame," TJ removed the offending arm, "No more tomatoes. Now come on."

Sullenly following her mentor, they entered the hydroponics lab just as Brody quickly shut off his radio.

"Hey." TJ smiled at him.

"Hi! Uh, didn't expect you see you two down here."

"Yeah, I just wanted to check on some of the medicinals here, and thought it would be a good opportunity for Tali to get over her idea that she's a walking herbicide." Said herbicide glared at her petulantly, hiked her purse further on her shoulder, and stomped off.

Brody nodded nervously. "Sure, of course."

The two sat down at a nearby microscope. After a mere few moments, their focus was interrupted by Brody. "That was … that was just, um, Volker and his … bridge club, so ..."

TJ nodded knowingly. "OK." Tali smiled at him.

**-O—O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

'Why am I all of a sudden the problem solver? What about Rush and Brody?'

"... clamps will not engage."

"What? That's impossible." Even though we know next to nothing about the inner functions of the ship, "Hang on."

While Eli ran about the consoles, trying to engage the shuttle clamps, Chloe walked over to Rush's console.

**-O—O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Young blanched. He hadn't planned to go out by vaporization He still had to sort things out with his wife, handle the Homeworld politicians, and get these people home.

"Well, can you do something about it?"

"Uh, uh, i-if I..." Poor kid. Eli, by nature, was a very habitual person. Panic came easy to him – unfortunately, he couldn't allow the Math Boy that comfort now. He had to use that brain of his and think!

"Just stay calm. Take your time."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Ron, on patrol, was still mad about his conversation with Tali. She generally wasn't a very forgiving person – as had been very evident with what she tried to do to that mugger after he, just getting into the marines, had come across the gunpoint robber, and laid him down cold. Though thankful, she had been very annoyed that he wouldn't let her give him a few kicks.

This led him to the conclusion that she had been threatened into keeping the secret. When he heard that Colonel Young knew, though, that option flew out the window. The man had been honest enough to try and get him out of the 'situation' with Colonel Teleford, and then came back for him when the planet was exploding.

Speaking of... "Go ahead, sir."

"Take a detail, find Rush _now_."

Now that was an order. "Yes, sir." The fact that the Colonel had called him on this frequency meant that this was life-or-death urgency. Young had asked Eli to fiddle with this radio, and only this radio so that it could openly receive two channels. He still had to set it specifically to transmit, but it meant that Young could communicate with whomever had the radio. Anything that passed the second channel was to remain military secret only.

Something big was happening.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Eli tried his best not to panic – fast-paced problems weren't his forte. He was better when he had an hour or so to figure things out. But Matt and the Colonel were counting on him. Fed up, he had tossed the useless sling away. He needed both hands for this, and all the same, he had only been able to regain control over half of one system. Eli, for once, could admit that he was out of his league. Rush sure had taken a rotten time for a break.

Speaking of said devil... "Eli, this is Doctor Rush, come in."

Finally, reinforcements! "Go ahead."

Rush's quiet authority came through the crackling radio. "Now listen carefully. I'm in the process of transferring access to the computer away from the Control Interface Room. Now, there's nothing you can do to stop that. All you're doing is slowing it down. Let me complete the transfer and I'll lock down the clamps manually."

Young, apparently, was listening in. "Don't listen to him, Eli. Keep doing what you're doing."

Eli nodded. He knew very well that Rush couldn't be trusted.

Rush came on the radio again. "Eli, we're in no-man's land here. Neither of us have control. Now let me finish before we jump to F.T.L."

"Don't do it, Eli. That is an order."

In a brief moment of indignity, Eli felt like reminding the Colonel that he was not in the military, and therefore, unable to be ordered around. As much as Eli hated to side with Rush, especially after Tali, the man had a point.

"Colonel?"

"Negative, Eli. Do not let that man take over a single system."

"He's doing it anyway!"

With a slight beep, the console registered that Eli now had full control of life-support systems. Much to the genius' surprise, he was making progress. It just wasn't fast enough.

The console chirped at him again. He was in!

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Tali walked down the hall beside Volker, TJ and Brody ahead of her. She walked with long strides, furious with herself. Brody was shit at acting inconspicuous without preparation.

Why hadn't she guessed this? This was so absolutely pathetic of her. She had known which civilians were succumbing to her wraythness' pressure, known that Brody was a supporter. Now they were talking about lines and sides, and the overall tone of their little excursion down the hall was that of her and TJ being prisoners. How could she have been so stupid? Eli had shown her the footage from the kino...

That's it! A kino! There was one in an air duct just two corridors over – this was a newer part of the ship that they had ventured into, and Eli hadn't had a chance to place more kinos yet. She could stick one in her purse, and be the ears for those stuck with Matt and Eli.

They were coming up to the turn that would get her there the quickest. Think think... Volker seemed pretty engrossed in his own thoughts, and Brody was up ahead still stammering out half-baked explanations that nobody could understand. Maybe neither would notice if she just slipped away.

Which was exactly what Tali did. For once thanking the dim hallway lights that Destiny provided, she pulled her black jacket closer around the gold shirt, and broke into a run. She had just passed the one corridor mark when the young scientist heard shouting.

Tali had never been an accomplished runner, more of a sprinter. Running left her out of breath and blotchy, with blood pounding in her ears. Nevertheless, she had to reach that kino.

Skidding to a halt (part of her mind crying out in agony over the slight damage to the soles of her boots) ran down the proper hall, stopping at the air vent. Thanking God that it happened to be a ground level one, she stooped down, ignoring the protests to her hearing by both her heart pumping and the pounding of Volker's heavy boots (one of the few steel-toed pairs on the ship) scarily close.

The grate was securely stuck to the wall. How did Eli get it in here in the first place!

...Of course, the fact that he had a remote, a general map of the ventilation system, and his genius meant that he probably never opened the rusted bars...

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Eli sighed in relief and allowed himself a brief moment of relaxation. True, doors were locking all over the ship, and Rush was once again showing how his capabilities in computer systems surpassed Eli's by having taken all of the systems bar one. In response to that, Eli had quickly thrown a copy of the firewalls he had for his kino system (he had spent about an age of his free time on them – they were impenetrable) around life support, deciding to protect what he had. If Rush even tried to get through them, he would be notified, and then Eli could add more as Rush got through. Sitting down on a bench, his eye caught the kino kontroller. The significance of said kinos suddenly occurred to him. Picking it up, he rapidly went through the system firewalls, and flipped through the threads of footage, trying to find something useful.

He had never been more relieved to have his precious firewalls up when he realized that his room was among the blocked off. They'd be able to access patrol kinos and new kinos just fine, but his system was secure.

He found his useful footage when a familiar boot angrily kicked the grate in front of the screen.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

TJ looked at the faces around her. They looked sheepish, even apologetic. They were committing mutiny against all the military, why would they be worried about her? They looked so determined, defiant … scared.

"Well, we're not gonna go shoot anybody. Put the gun down."

Wray smiled. "Now, everyone just needs to remain calm. This will be over soon enough." suddenly, something seemed to catch her eye. "Where's Volker?"

Brody looked sheepish – apparently his new favourite expression. "Uh, he went to get Tali."

TJ smirked smugly at Wray, who looked calmly furious. She hoped that Tali could find a way out of the area, but couldn't help being proud of her student. Forget proud, she was preening like a peacock at the fact that she hadn't even noticed Tali's disappearance until Volker happened to look over and find her missing.

Go Tali, go.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Tali glared at the rusted grate as if it would suddenly clean itself and swing open in response to her demand. Her kick hadn't even left a dent in the metal, and now her toe was strongly protesting. It had been rather satisfying though.

For a second, Tali couldn't believe her eyes. The kino had locked on her her, intelligently. She had managed to grab Eli's attention. Hearing Volker's boots turning the hall, she was, for once, thankful that she was a terrible runner. It made everything appear as if she was stooping to catch her breath, and not communicating to a koncealed kino. Hearing the footsteps, Eli had the sense to back the kino farther into the shadows.

"Come on!" Volker grabbed her arm and yanked her to her feet. Tali winced. That would leave a bruise.

"Hey, I know how to walk. No need to yank my arm off!"

The angry man scoffed. "I'm going to be in enough trouble as it is for letting you get away. You _won't_ get away again." he tightened his grip.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Eli couldn't believe his ears, and quickly ordered the kino to follow through the air vents directly above Tali.

Eli generally wasn't a very violent person – but right now, he wanted nothing more than to march straight up to Volker and show him why he should _not_ be manhandling Tali. There was a trash compactor in the kitchens – maybe he'd like to have his arm squished.

Surprised by his own thoughts, Eli quickly evaded a block in the air vent. The metal had been collapsed by something, and the kino couldn't get through. Eli panicked – he had to keep track of Tali and Volker. Leaving the vent at the earliest opportunity, he kept close to the ceiling.

"Eli-" Colonel Young was astounded, to say the least, to have Eli shush him. He had arrived with several others, including Matt and Greer's unsuccessful team.

Eli disabled the speaker, and turned up the volume from Tali's end. He turned to the audience, gesturing to the kontroller. "T-Tali managed to find a stray kino. I happened to be on the channel. Listen."

"_Sheesh, you've already taken half the ship, shouldn't you be a little more self-assured? I know we're just going to take it back, but you could at least bask in your treachery."_

"That little kid's insane! Is she trying to make him mad?" Greer walked over to watch the footage.

"That's exactly what she's doing." Young also looked over Eli's shoulder.

"_Just keep moving."_

"_Like I have a choice. What's going to be done with us? You can't kill us." Volker stopped._

"_I found her Chloe."_

_The pink-bedecked girl nodded. "Come with me, Talitha."_

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

TJ's face fell as Volker literally dragged in a red-faced Tali to intercept the group.

"TJ, what's going on?" Tali asked, coming up to her and rubbing her arm.

Making sure to remember this, TJ answered, "Rush and Wray have staged a coup. They've taken most of the ship, except for that which is inhabited by the military on a regular basis. That's all I've been able to figure out."

TJ wondered if Tali had been able to make contact with the colonel. As if guessing her question, Tali pushed some hair away from her ear, and tapped it. Listening, TJ heard the near imperceptible hum of a kino and grinned to herself. Go Tali!

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

The apple core group watched as the kino saw Rush in one of the newly discovered rooms as the prisoners passed. Rush looked up, supposedly to speak to one of the escorts in the prisoner's group, and saw the kino. Being not directly underneath it, it was not invisible to him.

"_Chloe! Camille!" he barked, scolding. The group halted. Coming out of the room, Rush looked up at the kino. The civilians' heads followed his, and saw the camera ball. Camille gestures to the civilian who had picked up Dunnings' gun, and they raised it._

_The scientist stared right at them. "Nice try, Eli."_

The kino screen blanked out as it was shot right in the lens. Ignoring Eli's indignant cry of "They shot my kino!" Colonel Young reminded himself to thank Tali when all this was over. Now they knew exactly where Rush's headquarters were, and who they had as prisoners. He grabbed his radio.

"Rush, this is Young."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Well, Eli tells me there might be a problem with your plan – something to do with life support."

Chloe felt her heart skip a beat. She turned to look incredulously at Rush – he had assured her that they would be completely all right. Damn, why did Eli have to have life support?

As Colonel Young proved that having Eli on his side was a major advantage, as all of Rush's fibbed arguments were tossed out the window, Chloe corrected her thought. Why did Eli have to be a genius?

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Eli felt slightly betrayed as he walked behind Chloe. It was nice that he was the biggest threat to Rush's coup, but Colonel Young had traded him as if he were a playing card. Scott had protested halfheartedly. Chloe was siding against him.

The only thing that cheered him up was the idea of Tali. If she had any idea what he was doing, she would be humming the Mission Impossible song way too loudly. He had several objectives: First and foremost, prevent the shields going up for any reason, for as long as possible, so that Young and Greer could get through the alien's hole. Second was the transfer of systems. He couldn't do much from the apple core, but it was possible that being at the Coup Headquarters would make him able to do something.

A stray thought made him halt. No...no, she wouldn't have. "Wait a minute."

Chloe stopped and turned to him expectantly.

Eli spoke urgently, wanting her to tell him it wasn't true. "In the Control Room, when you came by, w-were you just trying to distract me so that I wouldn't notice what Rush was doing?"

"What?"

"Don't 'What?' me."

"No. Of course not. Look, I knew it was coming but I didn't know when."

Eli puts his hands in his pockets, unsure of her. He wanted so much to believe her -and that wasn't saying much, seeing as she was still on the other side – but was it so hard to believe?

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"I think we do."

"Not a clue. Sorry, but a bunch of civilians against the colonel's training and experience?"

"It's about listening to reason."

This was when Tali spoke up from her position beside the door. "Yeah, slowly starving your enemy to death is great. Depriving your enemy of food and water is really reasonable." she got up right to Chloe. "Have you thought this out at all? Do you care for Matt one iota? Have you even considered how this would affect him? Normally, I stay out of his love life – I have no right to interfere. But when someone shows such blatant disregard for his feelings, that's when I protest. Just this morning, he came to me at a loss of what to do. He was so concerned about you and your nightmares that it was tearing him apart. And this is how you repay him."

Chloe glared.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"TJ, this is Doctor Brightman."

"Hi."

Brightman nodded to her. "Lieutenant. And you are?"

"Talitha Scott."

TJ nodded in her direction. "Tali here's been training to help me out. She's nearly a qualified medic."

"Nearly?" she said disbelievingly. Tali smiled grimly at her.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Well, I think we've officially been grouped in with the military."

"I think it's sad that I don't know whether to be happy or sad about that."

Eli and Tali were walking to the mess that same evening for dinner. The two were receiving mixed glances on said journey – military smiled at them, with one or two civilians. Most wouldn't meet their eyes. Civilians who had been higher up in the coup tended to either glare at them, or completely ignore their presence

Sitting down in the mess, Sgt. Becker handed them a bowl of ration paste with a smile.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

The next day, tensions ran high on Destiny, but none more so than between Eli, Matt, and Riley. Whenever they entered the room, Eli would fall silent, glare, and eventually stock off.

_Flashback_

"_What's so important that I have to come and see it right now?"_

"_You'll see. Can't you go any faster?" Vanessa James was dragging a reluctant Eli towards the mess._

"_Why -" the sounds of enthusiastic shouts cut him off._

"_Come on DestruKino, don't give up!"_

"_Finish him off Krusher!"_

_Eli froze in his steps at the doorway to the mess, appalled._

_Lt. Scott and Sgt Riley had gotten hold of some kinos and controllers, and decided that they would make fair battlebots. They had cleared out an area of the mess, and used chalk to write names on the kinos. Both had a field knife tapped to the top, but were otherwise unarmed. DestruKino, apparently, didn't approve with the activities that were completely off of it's programming, and kept trying to go off patrolling. Riley, however, had more control over Krusher, and had just gotten in a sparking stab._

"_What the hell are you guys doing!"_

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Soon enough, Matt asked Tali to go plead his case with Eli, because he had been stuck on kitchen duty with Riley because Young and Rush were mad too. Still, their loud anger was preferable to Eli's silent fury.

This resulted in Tali barging into the Apple Core, grabbing Eli's wrist ("Hey! I thought you said nothing strenuous for three days!"), and dragging him to her room, and pushing him down on the bed … to talk, of course. She sat next to him.

"They were just trying to have fun."

He looked at her incredulously. "Fun? Fun doesn't result in the loss of valuable technology!"

Tali frowned. "It wasn't that much different from your kino races..."

"Except there was no knives and no losing kinos..."

"The concept's still the same. They were using the kinos to have fun."

"Matt asked you to apologize for him, didn't he?"

"Yup."

Eli shook his head indulgently. "Whatever, he's forgiven … if only to get him off your back. But tell him if I _ever_ know about a kino battle again, he will know no peace."

"Will he rue the day?" Tali quipped with a grin.

Eli laughed. "Definitely. He will rue the day he ever got the notion of a kino battle." he nudged her jokingly. Her wince brought him back to reality.

"How's the arm?"

Tali glared at him. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

Eli waved his own arm around in the air whimsically. "Phasers set on stun would've done more damage. Now what about you?"

Sighing, she shrugged. "A few bruises. It just hurts on contact."

"Sleeve." Eli demanded. Without waiting for her to glare again, he grabbed her arm and rolled up the jacket sleeve. Eli felt himself getting mad again. Four dark bruises stood out on her fair skin, with another on the other side of her forearm. Frankly, this was strange for him. He generally didn't get violent … he got even.

Grinning at her, the math genius said, "I think it's time we give Volker some payback."

Staring at him in surprise for a moment, Tali slowly grinned back.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Lt Scott, we just dropped out of FTL. Please have a team ready on standby. Tali will be going with you."

Matt sighed. "Yes sir." he spoke into his radio. He had been able to come to terms with the fact that Tali was now a field medic, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't have protection. It wouldn't be personal feelings getting in the way of command of a mission...it would be protecting one of two people who had skills to help them survive.

He pressed the radio button.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Nnnnn," Eli watched the monitors carefully, seeing the target, "now."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Dr. Volker considered himself a calm, reasonable man. Which was why he was confused at his own concern.

A mindless patrol kino had been following him – no, not following him. It just happened to be on the route to the mess, his quarters, and hydroponics lab when he was. The strange thing was that it wasn't patrolling – just floating there, in place. Finally, he'd decided to go and see if that kid was in the apple core, and see if it was a glitch in the programming. His radio had been taken away after the unsuccessful coup.

But he halted outside the kino room – Eli's room – as what he heard set fear in his heart.

"I'm telling you, they creep me out!"

"They're inanimate, Tali. Machines."

"But it was like they were talking to each other! Two of them were just hovering in the middle of the hallway, as if they were plotting together! Verbally!"

"Tal, they may have been invented by the Ancients, but it's not like they can decide to suddenly kill us all. They don't have any intelligence."

There was incredulity in Tali's voice, "Are you kidding me Eli? These are the Ancients we're talking about. For all we know, the kinos have just been lying low to learn about us. With so many years without a purpose, maybe they made one for themselves!"

Eli sighed. "All right Tal, maybe your right. I'll look into it when I get a chance, okay? But for now, you'll just have to live with killer kinos."

Volker moved on. He didn't want to hear anymore – the kino had suddenly appeared in front of him, just hanging there watching him. Suddenly, a detour to the apple core seemed a better idea.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Look at his face!"

"I can't believe he bought that!"

Tali grinned. "This is gonna be great Eli. I can't wait to see -" Tali's radio crackled to life.

"This is Lt. Scott," as if nobody could recognize his voice now, "Tali, Dr. Caine, get suited up and down to the gateroom for an away mission. Sgt. Greer, get yourself and two of your men down with them."

Tali was torn – happy at going to the planet, and disappointed that "Dont worry Tal, I'll wait until your back for the finale. Just be careful down there." Eli smirked maliciously. It was a not unflattering look for him. "I'll keep the fear alive."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

TJ sighed mournfully. She had been hoping that the Colonel would forget Tali was in need of field experience. Of course, the blonde woman didn't dare go and ask to switch – she could just see the conversation now. "Hi Everett, can I go down to the planet instead of Tali so that I can get some nice fresh air? I've not been feeling well. Did I mention that I'm carrying your child?" yeah, that would go down well. She would just have to hope that there was something on that planet to help them get home before she started to show.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Would you calm down?"

"You realize I haven't been off that ship once, right?"

"Yeah, and if there's some huge alien down there, it's gonna go for the one bouncing around like an idiot!" Ron emphasized his point with a jab of the ration – covered spoon.

Matt walked into the mess. Ron and Tali were waiting to be sent through the gate, but Tali had a huge smile on her face and her forefinger kept tapping the table in what he recognized as a nervous habit born from hours doing work at a computer. "Sit tight, guys." he sat down, "The Gate's not dialing. They think it might be some kind of a glitch in the database."

Ron smiled sarcastically. "And here I was, worried I'd have to cut short my delicious meal!"

"And what a shame that would be." Tali added.

Grinning at them, a pink clad figure caught his attention in the corner of Matt's eye.

Chloe glanced quickly at Matt, passed over Ron, and studiously avoided Tali. The senator's daughter hadn't once locked gazes with the medic since Tali's scolding in the cell.

"We call that 'cold'" Ron said laughingly.

Matt nodded. "Yeah. It's gonna take a little time."

Tali frowned.

Turning to her and catching the frown, Matt joined the frown club. "I know you don't like her Tali, but give her another chance."

Tali shook her head. "I won't interfere, Matt, but that doesn't mean I have to like her. Maybe I'll learn to pity her someday, but I cannot honestly say that I support a relationship between you two."

Matt nodded. He didn't like not having his last family member's blessing, but maybe she just needed time too. "Just keep an open mind, Tali. That's all I ask."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Oh, Ro-on, I'm not seeing any huge aliens looking for some tasty roasted medic!"

Ron just gave her a look.

Matt cleared his throat. "Okay, you two, secure a perimeter around the shuttle. Dr. Caine, Tali, Sgt, your with me" Hearing a snapping sound, he spun around to see that Tali had wandered off to get a better vista of a nearby mountain range. She had brought her camera phone.

"Tali!"

"Coming!"

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"It's pure!" Tali smiled, putting the sample cylinder in her backpack.

"Well don't drink any of it just yet. We thought the ice planet water was pure too." Matt felt like he was babysitting. For some reason, Tali was just so easily amused today. She must have something else on her mind. "Okay, let's split up. Tali, you and I are going upstream, you two downstream. Look for anything that may be edible, but _do not_ eat anything until we've brought it back to Destiny for testing. Radio check ins every ten minutes, okay?"

"Yes sir."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"But couldn't anything bad in it be absorbed through the skin?"

Tali argued back. "Matt, the water tested pure. We don't have the capability to test the soil, and there are more chances of there being something in that than in a fast moving stream." Sheesh, she just wanted to wash her hands. Many varieties of roots were incredibly healthy, and she had already found something resembling carrots and potatoes. Really, they looked identical.

"Fine."

"Thank you." exasperated, Tali dropped her pack and knelt by the stream. Pushing her sleeves up, she stuck her hands in the water and sighed in relief as caked dirt and soil was pulled away by refreshingly cool water.

Or, at least, she would've, had Matt not grabbed her arm out of the water. Wincing as he unknowingly aggravated the bruises, Tali was forced to stand.

Matt had been absentmindedly waiting for his sister to wash her hands, when he noticed a bruise on her arm, barely shown by her sleeve. Noticing her wince, he immediately loosened his grip, but still pulled her sleeve up the rest of the way. Four lividly purple bruises stood out, with a fifth half hidden. He snapped his gaze back up to Tali's face, which had an annoyed and resigned expression on it

"Who did this?" he demanded.

"He's being dealt with."

Ignoring her, Matt went over all the men she had been interacting with in the last few days, trying to find the culprit. Eli would never do such a thing. Ron wouldn't lose control around her like that. Suddenly, the coup came to his mind. Tali had slipped away to inform them via Eli's stray kino, and had been dragged back by...

"Volker."

Tali pulled her arm away, and pulled her sleeve down. "I'm dealing with it."

Yeah right. "No, you're not. Ron and I'll have a little chat with him."

"No you will not!"

"Talitha Scott, he is not going to get away with manhandling you!"

"And he won't."

"Oh yeah? What's going to happen then?"

Tali grinned evilly. "Just wait and see bro."

Huffing, Matt answered the radio check in.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Well, we're getting a ton of plant samples. Tali's giddy at the medicinal possibilities." Matt felt really weird, talking to mid air, but he knew those in the Apple Core could hear him through the comm. Tali had gone off to get more pictures and samples, the others either with her or exploring.

"Well that's great."

"Uh, we also found some fruit. Greer went ahead and ate one. So far he hasn't had any reactions to it."

"How about water?" Rush asked.

"Tons of it. Good to drink and use, as Tali seems fine so far. She wanted to wash her hands after finding some edible roots. We'll bring back as much of it as we can."

"No alien creatures slithering around?" Eli now had the comm. Were they playing musical chairs?

"No, nothing. If there's anything, they're nocturnal."

"All right, head on home. Do a flyover of the area on your way."

"Copy that. Scott out."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Tali stared, wide eyed. "Take that, Washington monument." she muttered.

"Well, we weren't the first ones here." Ron was also in awe of the obelisk.

Matt put a few commands into the shuttle, which flew close to the spire, and took some pictures.

Tali went back to taking pictures from the shuttle's window.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"TJ! I did it, I actually went on an away mission, and nothing exploded!"

TJ couldn't help but smile at Tali's exuberance. The redhead sat her backpack on the table, and opened it. Removing three cases of sample kits, a water tester, and what appeared to be a kiwi, she placed her bounty on the table. She pointed out the furry fruit.

"Ron already ate one of those. He hasn't shown any ill effects, but I'd like to test it right away..."

"Of course."

The two spent the next twenty or so minutes testing items, when Colonel Young called over TJ's radio. "Lt, how's the food looking?"

"Delectable, sir. We can't find a single thing wrong with it. Same with the water and soil samples. Are there going to be more trips for more supplies?"

"There's going to be a large team going down to the planet while we do the circuit around the sun. We'll be picking them up in four week's time, and they'll be bringing even more with them."

"Well then we can certainly feast tonight sir. This food is perfectly healthy."

"That's good news. Young out."

TJ put the radio down, and resumed looking at Tali's pictures. The planet certainly was beautiful.

Tali smiled at her. "So, are you excited?"

"Well, yeah. We're all going to have a delicious dinner for once." the elder medic responded bemusedly.

Tali rolled her eyes. "Not that. About going down to the planet. It's your turn."

TJ grinned, leaning forward and wrapping the girl in a hug. She really did need to get out of here.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Matt slowly made his way to the mess. That was the only place left, really, and his target had been very mobile for some reason. He had to hurry, but that was impossible in this crowd. The Destiny was being left with virtually a skeleton crew – the vast majority of people were going on vacation.

Out of the corner of his eye, Matt noticed Volker moving quickly down a side hallway, a very long route to the kitchens. Quickly changing course, the military second-in-command caught up with him.

"Volker! Hold up." The man came to an abrupt stop.

"What i-is it?"

"I just wanted to have a little chat." Matt smiled and patted his rifle. "I had a little talk with my sister today. Guess what I found out?"

Matt walked so that he was right in Volker's face. Not giving the man a chance to respond, he started speaking again. "If I ever hear about you being anything less than polite in regards to Talitha, I will see to it that you never have a chance to do so again. And if you _ever_ dare to harm her in any way ever again," Matt smiled benignly, hearing the man hyperventilating, "Well, then, I think Sgt. Greer would want to know about it. He sees her as a dear friend and sister, you know. Do we understand each other?"

Volker made some incoherent noise, before swallowing and saying "Yeah … understood."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Eli sat down across from Matt in the mess, kino kontroller in hand. "It's really crowded in here." he commented (shouted) to him.

"Yeah. Everyone's deciding who's going to make up the skeleton crew."

"Me for one." Eli tapped a few buttons on the kontroller as he saw Volker dart into the already crowded room.

"Really? Why?" This confused the soldier – Eli hadn't been off the planet since the Fiery Sand Planet of Doom, he should be jumping for the chance. "Dude, have you _not_ seen Tali's pictures?"

"Yeah, but the Genesis planet looked nice at first too. The whole molten lava thing ruined it though."

"Relax Eli. We're not on the – uh, entrepreneur-"

"_Enterprise_."

"Yeah, that. Our worst worry is nocturnal aliens."

Eli snorted, quickly hitting some keys on the kontroller. "Yeah, they were great hosts last time."

At that point, their conversation was interrupted, as a scream drew silence into the hub of people and noise. Volker could be seen in the middle of three completely motionless kinos, panicking at the sight of them. The distinguished doctor ducked under one, and stumbled out of the mess, red faced with exhaustion.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Remember, if Franklin starts -"

"TJ", Tali gave the woman a little shake, "I'll be fine. There's twenty of us here, and I can handle that. You just enjoy yourself and bring back lots of medicine." quieter, she added, "Remember, it's starting as soon as you guys get back."

TJ nodded. "Right. Look after my infirmary!" The two embraced, and TJ stepped onto the shuttle. This was the final trip, and the group had to leave quick – there were so many people that wanted to come after seeing Tali's pictures. That was when Tali noticed something.

"Ronald Greer how dare you try and sneak by me without saying goodbye!"

"Me? Sneak by you? You've gotten me mixed up with someone else, little kid."

Tali rolled her eyes. "Get out of here. Be nice to the civilians."

Ron grinned. "I will if they are. Look after yourself Tali."

Tali gave a startled squeak as Matt wrapped her in a hug, "Bye sis."

Relaxing in her brother's arms, Tali mumbled back, "See you in a few weeks, bro." he smiled and walked away, talking to Colonel Young.

Eli nudged her good arm. "Observation deck?"

Tali nodded. "Observation deck."

It was an unlikely group that gathered in front of the gigantic window. Young, Wray, Eli, and Tali all lined the window, the radio line open to the shuttle. Matt's voice crackled over the channel.

"We're clear."

Young nodded pointlessly. "We'll see you in a month."

Eli couldn't resist. "Watch out for any missile casings and young Vulcans!"

Several voices shouted back, "Eli-!" before the radios left range.


	4. Chapter 4

All right, here it is. This chapter is where the AU really comes to life, and please remember, if you don't like it, I'm not forcing you to read. The story will completely branch away from the series. Another goal I have this chapter, and in the next few, is to address some issues that SGU has left sorely unattended (despite the amazingness of the episodes – Incursion pt1 was stupendously astronomical!). Do be warned, however, this chapter is the start of many where this story will gain it's rating.

One such issue is Eli's age. For this story, he will be 25.

Also, I'm thinking of changing the title. At the time when I selected "The Destiny Chronicles", I was in a bit of a hurry, so this turned out to be a rather generic title. I think that "Home Sweet Huge Ancient Spaceship" had a nice feel to it, but those of you who have put up with my grouchiness these last few chapters deserve to input if you so desire. I would welcome any suggestions. Also, for any people wondering about the plot, the main plot line should become apparent in the next few chapters now that we're into AU.

Happy Reading,

Legend

* I'm not sure if this is correct, or even exists, but for the sake of the story, it does.

The Destiny Chronicles

Chapter Four

27/30 days remaining

He crushed his mouth down onto hers, pulling her body to his. He let his hands wander wherever they wished, and pushed his tongue into her mouth, exploring. She gasped for breath as Eli wrenched his mouth away and began leaving kisses down her jaw and neck. One hand wrapped around her back, while the other ducked underneath her shirt, desperately seeking the prizes hidden by the fabric. Finally having the idea to just get rid of the offending clothing, Chloe easily removed her shirt for him, leaving her top half completely nude for his intense and thorough study...

Eli snapped awake with a gasp. Damn it, why did he always wake up?

Realising that he had a problem on his hands, Eli quickly glanced over at the console screen. Thankfully, nobody was even remotely close to his room. He really had to get that door fixed – he did not want anybody seeing him in his current state. Well, maybe Chloe. Deciding that until he got his door fixed, a cold shower would have to suffice, Eli got up, threw on his jacket, and checked the route to the closest shower room. Thankfully, it was early enough that none of the 17 inhabitants of Destiny were up. Sighing, Eli began his stealth journey.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"I still can't believe they left it like that!"

"I still can't believe you actually cried!" Eli closed his laptop (which had the complete series of Battlestar Galactica with Razor), as he and Tali had just finished watching the last episode. Star Trek was next, starting with the Original series, and going in chronological order.

Tali glared at the laughing young man before her. "It was a touching scene." she hissed.

Eli scoffed. "We all _knew_ Roslin was going to die. She's been dying since the very first episode. You're just touchy enough to cry at it."

"I am _not_ touchy."

"Tal, you cried at a scene that has been in the making ever since Battlestar Galactica first aired. We all knew it was coming, and when."

Suddenly, Eli realised how angry Tali appeared. The redhead was glaring at him, gripping the table, and suddenly huffed, standing up and storming out of the mess.

Eli gaped. Turning to the woman next to him, he asked, "What'd I say?"

Vanessa sighed, shaking her head. "Go apologize, Eli."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Tali, can I come in? I want to apologize for whatever it is I did." Eli resorted to calling through the door, which did not open after the third ring. At this, however, the hatch slid open, revealing a red-faced, glaring forensic scientist. Eli walked in tentatively.

"Well?" she asked tersely.

"Um," Eli felt, for once, that he wasn't welcome to sit in down. Standing was his only option. "I wanted to say sorry?"

"Was that a statement?"

"N- Ye -No. What did I say, Tali?"

To Eli's consternation, Tali suddenly gave a choking sob. "I'm sorry (sob) Eli. I storm (sob) off on you, (hiccup), and then your nice enough to come and apologize to me! (sob) I'm a horrible friend..."

"Oh yay, PMS." Eli mumbled to himself, going to sit beside her.

"Listen, you're not a horrible friend. You're one of my best friends ever! And about you storming off, don't worry about it. We all get grouchy sometimes, and we take it out on those around us. You should have seen my mom during menopause..."

Tali suddenly became alert. "Oh, Eli! That reminds me, I wanted to ask you something. When you used the communications stones, do you still have the same fine motor functions?"

"Um," Eli considered the abrupt change of subject, "Now that I think about it, yeah. I could drive just as easily. Why?"

"Even handwriting?"

"I suppose so."

Tali broke into a jubilant smile. "Then say goodbye to Phillip Fry. Eli, just write your mom a letter!"

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"It's approved." Colonel Young returned to his body, as he had used the communication stones to run the idea by General O'Neill. "Good luck, Eli." the man smiled, got up, and left. Rush had wanted to frantically point something out to him, but he had decided that doing a favour for Eli, the boy who had proved infinitely an asset, was a better use for his time.

Eli was practically bouncing in his seat during the wait, but now he had calmed down. When he had first gone home, the idea of facing his mother had horrified him, but now it seemed smaller. The young genius supposed that after sticking his arm in a wormhole that had a huge chance of snapping shut, getting shot, facing Talitha Scott's wrath, conspiring with said woman to form a very informative surveillance network, facing aliens, and helping deal with an uprising, dealing with his mom didn't seem as bad.

Key word, as.

He loved his mother very much, but couldn't help feeling worried that he would somehow disappoint her even more. When he was in high school, getting amazing grades, she was always telling him how proud of him she was, how she was so happy to have him there with her after the others left. However, Maryann hadn't said a word of such praises ever since he dropped out of MIT. Him being unable to hold a job just made the matter worse.

Elementary school had been all right – learning the basics was necessary. High school had been horrible, since for some reason Eli was not allowed to just take maths and computer sciences. He had thought that things would get better in college, but there he had been unable to find a suitable challenge. He lasted three years into his concurrent master's program* before the young prodigy reached his breaking point, and subsequently, Eli dropped out. But without post-secondary education, none of the jobs he got held a challenge, and soon Eli felt reluctance to get up in the morning, knowing it would be another day of complete mental inactivity. That was when an add for Prometheus came in another game, promising the unsolvable.

He opened his eyes, and threw off the familiar disorientation that came with suddenly being in a different body.

"Eli Wallace?"

"That's me." Eli turned around in the swivel chair, and (somewhat reluctantly) put down the porn magazine the other man had been holding. The officer by the door spoke up again.

"We have an office waiting for you, Mr. Wallace. Follow me please."

Getting up, Eli followed the air force officer to a small room that seemed not too far from the communications room. It was simple, with a desk, chair, and writing materials.

"I'll be outside whenever you're ready."

"Uh," the door closed. Eli snorted. "Thanks." Sitting down, he grabbed a pen and a piece of paper, to test his handwriting.

It was identical.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Welcome to the Destiny. My name is Camille Wray." the power hungry woman sighed. Everyone was off fixing some aspect of the immediate area, or doing patrols and keeping eyes on them. Except for her. Which means that she got stuck on watch-the-new-guy duty.

The man who had traded bodies with Eli grinned lewdly. It was certainly an unfamiliar look on the genius' face. "Hey there beautiful. They didn't tell me that angels had descended over here. Wanna go somewhere and I can remind you of what Heaven's like?"

Rolling her eyes, Camille demanded, "Name?"

"Lt. Richard Hudson, babe, but you can call me dreamy."

Camille gripped her clipboard in frustration. "Lt. Hudson, I'm your guide while your here on Destiny. Would you like a tour of the known ship?" she prayed for a no.

"I know I'd love to explore every inch." Subtle. Real subtle. Angrily blowing an errant strand of hair from her face, she turned around and started walking, knowing that her assumption of the control in this situation had just been confirmed. Footsteps trailed behind her.

"This is the mess hall." Camille over-exaggerated an arm sweep, almost hitting him in the face, to encompass the mess. A few of the remaining officers were hanging around. "It's not much to look at, but most of the ships entertainment happens … here." She had completely lost Hudson's attention, seeing as he was now making a beeline for Lt. James.

Vanessa looked up. "Hey Eli."

He grinned. "Hay is good for one thing only, babe. Rollin'!"

The air force lieutenant choked on her ration paste. Camille Wray, surprisingly, came to her rescue.

"Lieutenant, this is Lt. Richard Hudson. Eli's using the communication stones to try writing his mother a letter." she quickly introduced. Vanessa nodded in understanding. She doubted Eli would ever be so crude. Camille's radio turned on, Tali's familiar voice asking for her, and she went out into the hallway.

"Listen," Vanessa said sweetly to the other officer, "Since hurting you would only hurt Eli in a little while, I'll let you off that time."

Eli – Hudson – smirked at her. "Babe, you can let me off any time, any place."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Camille sighed in relief as she managed to escape the man, and activated her radio.

"What is it Scott?"

"I was wondering how Eli's replacement was doing, _Wray_."

"Don't you have anything better to do?"

"Well no, on a ship of 20 cautious people, I'm glad to say that I have absolutely no work. I am, however, stuck here for most of the day, and bored out of my mind."

Camille sighed. "He's … certainly causing a stir." the IOA representative looked into the mess and reassessed her statement. "Speaking of which, I should probably go play mediator."

"That bad?"

"Well," she looked again as Vanessa's fist connected with _Eli's_ face with a sickening smack. He dropped down, out cold. "Lt James just knocked him out, thankfully. You might want to bring an ice pack."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

_Mom,_

_Hi, it's me. I know writing letters isn't really my thing, but email and phone are out of the question. The letter's being censored, and I'd rather it not look like Swiss cheese, so I can't say too much about my new job. Just let me say about it that I finally have a challenge! I've met some great friends. Seriously, mom, my life is in the best place it's ever been._ Yeah, on the other end of the universe. Great._ I have a job which, frankly, I don't think I'll be losing any time soon, and people I know I can count on. Also, I'm supposed to remind you that if anyone asks, I'm being a civilian consultant for the air force. That's it._

_Anyway, I heard you met Phil! I know all about it._ Seeing as I was there._ He's been transferred out, though, so we won't be seeing him anymore. But I've met lots of other great people, so not to worry. You'll be happy to know I've lost some weight, _ration paste and running for my life; gotta love it_ and I'm getting in shape._

_I'll try and tell you about some of the people I've met, but obviously I won't be using their last names. Let's see...well, there's Chloe. She's really nice, one of the first people I met, and really smart._ No way I'm telling my _mom_ how attractive Chloe is _Then there's the Colonel. He's sort of the guy in charge, tries to look after us all. He's a pretty nice guy. Then there's Nick, I guess he'd be my supervisor, and I've never met someone more dedicated to their work. Seriously. He's insane! Matt's next, Chloe's _sigh_ boyfriend. He's a good guy, but he always tries way too hard. There's Ronnie _I hope he never reads this _who's got a bad temper and is a crap poker player, but a nice guy all around. Finally, there's Tali, Matt's sis. She's pretty much my best friend, really smart, but don't ever, EVER get her mad. She can yell. Loudly._

_I obviously can't tell you where I am, but that's about it for the people. There are some others, too, like the other scientists, the engineers, and the members of the air force. I don't know when I'll be able to write again, but if you want to respond, the person who delivered this letter can make sure that I get any answer. _

_And mom … I'm sorry I left you. I promised you I never would, but this really is for the best I think. You get what you need, and I'm not hanging around anymore doing nothing. I can guarantee you mom, this is a job I'll be keeping_ They can't really fire me on the other end of the universe. _Tell me if Mark gives you any trouble, though, okay? I can write him too, but I'd really rather not waste my time on that bastard._

_I'm still here for you mom … just far away at the same time._

_Love,_

_Eli_

Sighing, Eli stood up and picked up the single sheet of paper, folding it in three and placing it in the envelope. He had dated it as two weeks ago, to keep up with the idea of him being very far away. Knowing that he would be hand-delivering it, he merely scrawled 'Mom' on the front. He left it open, knowing that it would have to be inspected. Opening the office door, Eli found an airman waiting.

"I'm ready."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Tali left the MACA (Malleable Ancient Cooling Adhesive) on Eli's face, wincing for the pounding headache that her friend would have when he returned to his body. The new medic stood up and turned to Vanessa.

The ranking military officer noticed that Tali was giving her 'the look'. The look that misbehaving children received from parents, teachers, principals, and sometimes even pets. Vanessa squirmed. "I'm sorry Tali, I know Eli's going to suffer for it. But I warned him to stop!"

The look continued. "Did that make you feel any better?"

"Well … no, not really."

"And what would have been better to do instead of cause Eli to have a migraine when he gets back?"

Vanessa brightened. "When is he getting back?"

Tali put her hands on her hips, in the typical 'yeah right' stance. "He doesn't know. And you should know, Vanessa, that when someone's on the communication stones, the only fair revenge against the new consciousness is caused by mental disturbance and anguish."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

He blearily opened his eyes, and the world came into focus. His senses sharpened when he noticed the female standing beside what felt like an SGC infirmary bed.

"Hello Lieutenant, don't try to get up just yet."

As the metallic surroundings caught his attention, Hudson remembered what had happened. Here, he also became extremely glad that this wasn't his body, seeing as the pounding pain in his head would have been very bothersome if it were actually him.

"I'm a medic, lieutenant. Do you know where you are?"

Behind Tali, out of Hudson's view, Camille and Vanessa stood grinning. Once she heard what the two had planned for her charge, Wray had insisted on joining them.

"Yes," he then added, as the redhead came into focus, "I must have died and gone to heaven to be seeing such a beautiful spirit."

"You mean you saw it? Where!" Tali turned around and looked behind her.

"You saw it? What does it look like?" Camille spoke up, coming into his sight.

Hudson's eyes widened. "Uh..."

"I mean, it wouldn't actually help us get rid of it, but it would settle a couple of gender bets." Tali said with an air of practicality.

"I know; I'm set to win two chocolate bars if it's a boy."

"Wha … what spirit are you talking about?" Hudson's drowsy mind finally registered what was being said.

Tali shrugged. "Spirit, ghost, incorporeal entity, whatever you want to call it. We believe it's an Ancient that ascended wrong, found it's way here, and has been waiting for one of it's own to come help it."

"Poor thing," Camille shook her head in pity, "The general consensus is that any sentience it might have had has been driven to madness by spending tens of millenia completely alone. It's actions are completely unpredictable. One minute, it opens doors for women, tidies up the mess, and hangs around the ship, the next, it's viciously attacking anyone it comes across. It's completely mad."

For the first time, Richard Hudson wished he hadn't volunteered for the cushiest assignment on the base.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

They passed the corner store, and Eli knew it was precisely 103 steps to his front door. Only 51 if he were running from the neighbor's dog. Eli had always made a habit of counting things when he was a kid. It was always comforting. It was 438 steps round trip to his elementary school, and 72 to his high school bus stop.

Finally, the relatively normal house came into sight. It had been three months since he last saw it, and somehow the pleasant house seemed daunting not in itself, but in the arena that it would soon be.

Luckily, his mom's car was in the driveway. Though he had been prepared to wait for hours, it was far more convenient that she was at home. His driver parked the non-decrepit black car at the edge of the sidewalk, allowing Eli to get out.

"Good luck Mr. Wallace." the man said, being much nicer that the other airman.

Eli swallowed. "Thanks." He opened the door and stepped out. He knew that the information he could now take back would allow several other people of Destiny, who couldn't confront their relatives to communicate with them, and now everyone in the SGC was being nice to him.

Seven steps … four steps … sort of a half step … Eli rang the doorbell. There was silence for a moment, before Eli heard his mother's familiar brisk walk coming to answer the door. Steeling himself, Eli took a deep breath. He knew that, in order to pull this off without giving his mother an aneurism while trying to understand it all, he had to be strictly professional.

Maryann Wallace answered the door, not expecting to see a tall man in military fatigues holding a plain white envelope outside her front door. At first she feared the worst. Eli refusing to talk about his work on the phone with her showed that somehow, the military had gotten to her little genius, and had him working on something dangerous. Eli had said that he was doing what he always dreamed of, but much to her shame, Maryann couldn't remember what that was. The only thing she could come up with, coupled with Eli's pure genius plus the air force, was some sort of atomic work.

The man spoke up. "Ms. Wallace?"

Maryann always smiled when she heard that name. She had gone back to her maiden name after getting over her divorce, and her son had insisted that his be changed as well. Teenaged Eli had said that he just didn't want to be associated with "that no-good bastard", but Maryann always felt better knowing that Eli would never leave her.

And then he did.

"Yes?" her voice shook. If Eli had died …

The man smiled kindly, almost as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. "I have a letter here. I was told to wait for a response." He held out the envelope. Written on it, in Eli's familiar scrawl, was _Mom_.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Hudson squared his shoulders. He wasn't going to let some ancient Ancient ruin his fun. This was a ship full of women who had only had the same stuffy scientists to be with for three months. As soon as he had the opportunity to show some of his skills, even in another body, the females would be lining up.

The lights above him flickered.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Brody grinned as he pressed the button at random intervals. Lt. James had come and asked for his cooperation, and though he'd never met Eli's replacement, it seemed a good opportunity to get back on the good side of many people. It was also very fun.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Eli." Maryann muttered to herself, holding the unopened letter like a long-lost treasure. She immediately turned and went into the small living room, sitting on the couch.

Seeing the happiness on his mother's face at receiving his letter, Eli felt guilty for not thinking of it before Tali. It was so obvious!

Thankful that she had left the door open, Eli walked in and stood in what he was pretty sure was 'at ease'. His mom was scanning the letter with alacrity, beaming at parts, while her brow furrowed in concentration at others.

She finished. Turning to him, she distractedly said, "Please make yourself at home. There are cookies in the kitchen."

Eli smiled. "Thank you ma'am. Take your time."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Well we'll definitely have to wait until Eli gets back." Young stood in the Apple Core with Rush, looking over his shoulder at the current crew manifest.

Much to his displeasure, Nicholas Rush had no choice but to admit the dropout's genius. Not only was the Colonel firmly in the kid's support, but the kid would be helpful.

"But then we've got two teams. Eli, Lt. James, Ms. Wray, and Miss Scott, and You, Airman Dunning, Sgt. Riley, and myself. Mr. Brody will be in charge of things here." Rush circled the names on his notepad.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Matt looked around him in satisfaction. They had just finished constructing the shelters, and while primitive, they were waterproof. There had been a few altercations, but so far everyone was beginning to realize that they had to rely on each other.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Careful, that's a wall!"

"No kidding, I couldn't tell!"

"You're the one that's supposed to be able to fly them!"

"All I know is from watching Eli."

Vanessa snorted. The two were trying to fly a kino so they could watch all of their recruited help scare the crap out of Hudson. "Yeah, and I'm betting that you weren't paying attention to the kinos." she teased knowingly.

This claim startled the forensic scientist. Having been completely focused on her academics during her schooling in order to get scholarships, Tali had never really been part of the social scene. Seeing as her workplace was then filled with either women or attached guys, the new medic had never had to deal with such teasing. As a result, she immediately ignored it for later analysis.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

"Oh yes, I remember one time when it started to decompress a compartment, nearly killing us all, before stopping and opening the door for us." Riley said distractedly as he tapped some buttons on a hallway panel. While Hudson was unconscious, Tali, Vanessa, and Camille had gone around and informed several crew members of the plan for not only some revenge, but some good clean fun.

"Really?" Eli – Hudson – looked around at the air vents worriedly.

"And that's not even mentioning that time with the cutlery in the mess," Brody shivered theatrically beside him. Catching on, Camille and Riley shivered as well. "Poor Ryan. The guy just hasn't looked the same."

"I see." Hudson's voice cracked.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Two hours after Eli had sat down in _his_ armchair with a glass of milk and a plate of his mom's cookies, Maryann was sealing her letter. While she was infinitely glad that Eli, for all intents and purposes, seemed happy and healthy, she wanted to _see_ him, to _talk_ with him. A letter was far better than nothing, but it wasn't the best.

The last three months had been a real eye-opener for her. Maryann was ashamed of herself, having always taken her younger son for granted. He'd always had amazing marks, so much so that Maryann had learned to judge by those numbers. When he became a college drop out, she no longer had those to judge him by. So, she'd been able to figure out that she had looked for other numbers. The sick mother had come to income. Simply put, Eli didn't have one. It wasn't until she had to pay exorbitant taxi rates, look after herself after doctor visits, deal with Mark, and all the other little things Eli had done, that she realized how much Eli did. Yes, he spent most of his waking hours in front of the computer, but he was always there for her. Whenever she didn't understand something that she heard, or saw, Eli would always be patient and explain it to her (or try to, in the case of those sci fi shows he always watched). She missed their evenings watching the news, she missed his caffeine addiction, she even missed making cookies for him.

There was so much she had to say sorry for, so much to tell him. But it's not like she could in a letter. No, she'd have to wait for when Eli came home.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Chloe absently turned a rock over in her hands. This was her chance to get back together with Matt without that sister of his being around. Every time the senator's daughter saw the redhead, her words in the holding cell came back to her. Chloe was now wishing that she'd taken a neutral stance and just stayed out of it all together, but she owed Rush. He did save her life.

But at the same time, there seemed to be two explicit sides. The military, with Eli, Tali, and those six other civilians, and the other civilians. There were no more neutrals after Eli and Tali sided with the military. Really, the military side had pros and cons to it. That they were currently in power, and currently contained both Matt and Eli, were definite pros, while they also contained Talitha and a command system that she didn't understand. Matt was easily more popular than Colonel Young – why didn't he just take control? Why did Colonel Young still listen to Earth's orders? These weren't politics that she could understand. At least on the civilian side, she had a chance of rising to power using politics that she had been raised into.

Chloe knew the reasons why her father had her as his assistant. One, she was his daughter. Two, Chloe had a keen nose for popularity. Walking into a room, she could immediately garner the atmosphere, who was in charge, and anyone who felt differently to the predominant crowd. She would then pass this information to her father, who would decide which of several pre – written speeches to use. On the Destiny, Colonel Young was in charge, but Matt was most liked. Despite her usefulness, many just regarded Tali as Matt's sister, and Eli as the young upstart who had no right to be correcting people. Dr. Rush was the opposition, while Camille Wray seemed to be almost … reluctantly chasing power.

All in all, her best bet was to entice Matt back, get close to Eli, and yet stay high up in the civilian hierarchy.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Eli smiled as Maryann handed him a sealed white envelope, with _Eli_ written on the front in his mother's focused and exact writing.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Hudson paled as he walked back into the mess with Camille, to find it completely empty, with all the benches in the middle of the room, stacked in an upside down pyramid. This was too much.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Lisa Park and Vanessa shared a high five. Revenge was sweet.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

_Eli,_

_I don't really know where to start. I guess I have to say that I'm so glad you're happy. There's so much that I have to say, but I don't think I can in a letter. I'll just wait until you get home._

_I'm fine, so don't worry. Mark hasn't even called, so I'm hoping he's finally given up. That's too bad about your friend, he seemed like such a nice boy. I am glad that you've met other people though._

_When will I be able to see you? I'm glad you're finally getting in shape. It's so nice to know that I can at least communicate with you now. And don't worry about the cover story – I don't think anyone's realized you're even gone!_

_I'm proud of you honey._

_Love,_

_Mom_

Eli did his best to memorize the letter. It would be kept on file for him in the SGC, but he couldn't take it back with him. He was glad that his insensitive ape of a brother had given up on contesting dad's will, while at the same time, his mother's candid mention of nobody noticing his disappearance of three months stung.

But at least she was proud of him.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Colonel Young felt that he had missed something when Eli's replacement – Houston or something – passed him, running down the hall to the communication room screaming with one hell of a shiner.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello fellow readers! I realize that this has been a very long time between updates, and I really hope that there wont be a repeat. But my grandma recently had an operation to get rid of bowel cancer, and I hope that my family's life will return to normal in the next week or so. It's not everyday that an 87 year old woman with every health issue in the book undergoes such a major operation, so we've been spending every day with her for the last several weeks now. But happily, she's going to be just fine.

In these past few weeks, I've sorted out exactly how everything is going to go. There's just the matter of writing it all down and sorting out all the plot holes. If I'm infringing on anyone else's published idea, I'm really sorry, but I haven't even been on the SGU section on fanfiction all this time. Notify me, and I'll make any necessary adjustments. Now, in this chapter, I'm hoping to start the main plot, and get in a lot of character development. I hope to give some insight into the developing characters of Vanessa, Camille, and Ron. I'm sorry if some people were hoping for an action packed chapter, but every once and a while you need to have a chapter that sets things up. I can guarantee that the chapter after this one will contain about 10 000 words, more action, and the expedition.

I also realized I forgot to explain MACA. It's a navy blue clay-like substance that is basically an Ancient ice pack. Let's say Tali was wandering around the infirmary bored, say, day 29, and found a cupboard full of it. Also, I know absolutely nothing about the inner workings of cell phones, so anything in here is just conjecture.

Happy Reading,

Legend

The Destiny Chronicles (Soon to be Home Sweet Huge Ancient Spaceship)

Chapter 5

27/30 days remaining

Tali, Camille, and Vanessa raced after Hudson, which just confused Young even more. Deciding to find out what was going on, he followed the group.

The chase came to a halt in the communications room, with Hudson quickly switching off the base. Everyone else skidded to a half. The terrified expression left Hudson as Eli returned to his body. Suddenly, Eli held a hand up to his head in a futile attempt to stop a pounding headache.

"Eli?" Tali questioned out of necessity.

"Yeah, it's me."

She smiled and walked up to him. "This should help, here." she placed a small patch of the dark blue MACA just under his eye, pulling his hand away first.

Eli smiled as the cooling sensation did, indeed, help. "Thanks Tal. So," he put his hands in his pockets, "What happened?"

"I'd like to know as well." Colonel Young spoke up.

The other two women turned to Camille. The IOA woman sighed, and said, "Lt. Hudson, Eli's replacement, was becoming far too … insistent with some of the female staff."

"Yeah, I am sorry about that Eli. I wasn't thinking." Vanessa gestured to his eye.

"That's all right," Eli waved her off. The MACA was helping to keep the pain down. "But seeing as I'm not currently as blue as a smurf, what else did you do?"

Tali smirked. "We managed to convince him that the ship is haunted." Eli's eyebrows rose and he fought off a laugh.

Camille cleared her throat awkwardly. "We should probably go fix those benches, by the way. And tell people to stop scaring Eli."

Young shook his head. "Next time, just come to me, okay Lieutenant?" Vanessa nodded, and he turned to the rest of the group, "Now, you all have a briefing with Dr. Rush and myself in the control interface room."

Eli sighed, exasperated. "Is it so hard to call it the apple core?"

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

As the group piled into the apple core, everyone could see that Dr. Rush was excited by whatever had happened. His eyes shone with excitement, and he paced restlessly, flipping the pages of his ever-present notebook with a ghost of a smile. This was the scientist who had gotten into the program, and been fascinated by all there was to learn. In this state, he was nearly tolerable.

Since the issue with the gun, Talitha had considered forgiving him. Perhaps he'd had a slip of judgment, but was afraid to come forward? Maybe he truly regretted his actions? Split personality? It was easy to think of explanations when he was this way. This man who lived for discovery, who breathed for knowledge. Who would consider him to be a Machiavellian bastard?

"I had a rather enlightening experience this morning. I managed to press the wrong button in the elevator. Luckily I could get back, but as it turn out," he paused, seemingly for dramatic effect, "there are certain elevators in the known area of the ship that don't go just up and down."

At the push of a button, a large floating outline of the ship came into view, with views from top, bottom, and both sides. In the center area of the ship, the 'known' area, four small rectangles highlighted blue, and lines spread out from them, highlighting the paths that emerged from the rectangles. Soon, there was a virtual spiderweb across the ship.

"Cool," Eli grinned, "We've got turbolifts."

Tali snorted, while Young smiled indulgently. Recently, it had not been uncommon to hear sound effects, gasps, and uproarious laughter from either Eli's or Tali's rooms, as they pulled late nights watching various science fiction shows on their laptops.

"These are the paths where the elevators can actually go to. Now unfortunately," Rush gestured to the diagram, ignoring Eli and Tali's snickers, and the majority of the paths began to glow red, "many of the shafts are damaged beyond repair."

The only blue paths left, were three in the known area, one in each of the wings, and two in the front portion.

"I felt that, with being out of FTL for so long, this was an excellent opportunity to explore. Colonel Young agrees with me. My idea was to mount two separate expeditions, one port and one starboard, and map out which rooms will be the most useful. Given the immense size of the ship, we should be able to complete the wings in about a week, if we keep a consistent pace. After that, both groups would meet up here," he gestured around the apple core, "and then take this elevator to the prow of the ship, where they would split up to explore the neck, meeting up again here at the control interface room. All in all, the expeditions should take a total of one and a half to two weeks."

"That seems like a long time to walk around a ship," Vanessa voiced doubtfully.

"Well, the Ancients were known for making cityships," Rush again gestured to the map, "while the Destiny might not have been meant as a city, it is certainly as big as one. She was meant to be able to very comfortably support hundreds of Ancients. It will take some time to accurately record each room and it's estimated purpose, navigate damaged corridors, and of course obtain a suitable amount of sleep. Quite frankly, two weeks is a bit on the generous side of things." he said, a touch of patronization in his tone.

"We wanted to keep teams small, so that if something does happen, we have a smaller amount of people to retrieve. Dr. Rush, Airman Dunning, Sgt. Riley, and myself make up one team, while Lt. James, Eli, Tali, and Ms. Wray make up the second team." Young interrupted,speaking up from his corner.

"I think we have a problem, though." Eli had been silent the past few moments, doing some quick math and coming to an unsatisfactory conclusion. "There's no way that the radios can handle that range. They would stop being able to transmit to a team of equal advancement at about here," Eli walked up and pointed to a spot on the diagram of the ship. "and not be able to transmit back to the apple core shortly before we reach the tip of the wing. We'd be out of range of the apple core going into the neck in about a day or two."

"That's where you come in, Eli." Young nodded to Rush, telling him to finish the explanation.

"Eli, since you're luck with virtually all of the communications devices never seems to fade, we need you to come up with a way of extending the radio range. The two teams need to be able to communicate with each other, and the control interface room, at all times."

Eli's eyes widened. "You want me to do what?"

Rush smiled condescendingly. Eli felt Tali stiffen next to him. "Find a way to increase the radio's range. We set out in seven days."

"Wait, why don't we just use the kinos?" the redhead interjected.

Young answered. "In order to communicate two ways with the kinos, a member of each team would have to be solely dedicated to using the kino to follow the other team. We don't need anybody having that kind of distraction. Some of the corridors are heavily damaged, and a misstep could be dangerous." he turned to Eli. "Eli, we need as much range that you can get out of those radios. Tali, you need to make up a set of instructions about basic first aid supplies and procedures for the personnel to use while you're away. Rush, you need to leave instructions for Mr. Brody." he looked around for a second. "That's all. Dismissed."

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Tali jogged up to Eli's side. He had bolted from the apple core as soon as they were let out. He had shoved his hands in his pockets and was walking quickly with his head down. The forensics specialist reached out and grabbed hold of his sleeve, causing the math genius to come to a halt. The others coming from the apple core pushed past them, eager to get on with their own work.

"Eli are you okay? How was your mom?"

_I don't think anyone's even realized you were gone._ "I'm fine. Mom was happy to get a letter. Sorry Tali, but I've got a lot of work to do, so I'll see you later, okay?" Eli gave her a brief smile before speeding off again.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Eli sighed as he finally got to his room. His first mission was simple; close his doors. Then, check the kino footage to see exactly what Tali had been talking about, and see if anything happened while he wasn't at his self-appointed post. Then he could get to his impossible task. He would have to deal with the undoubtedly angry forensic scientist turned medic when she barged in the room. Hopefully, at no point would he have to think.

He had a lot of work to do.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Tali took her jacket off and tossed it onto the desk chair. Turning off the lights, she went and sat by her window, sighing in relief as her back in the cold wall. The Ancients didn't have much in the way of back support – it was either cushy lounge chairs and sofas, or benches and barstools. Her room was in such a spot that the sun of the system was a constant, beautiful, nightlight. It was almost as comforting to watch as the FTL colours.

She had a lot of thinking to do.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Vanessa quickly made her way to her quarters as her shift ended. The fact that she was doing Matt's job did not help in getting her mind off of him. But then, did she really want to? Ever since that siren Chloe had gotten her claws into him, all she had were memories. The lieutenant didn't know what drew her to the sometimes insensitive, oblivious, and by-the-book man, all she knew was that she desperately wished the blankets around her were his arms.

She had a lot of remembering to do.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Camille rubbed her eyes tiredly. The cold metallic ceiling of her quarters did nothing to calm her enough for sleep. This constant fighting for power was beginning to wear on her. Sometimes, the amateur artist wished for nothing more than a day off – not having to worry about getting enough power to satisfy those above her in the IOA, about Sharron's resulting well being. She pulled the covers off of her, frustrated, and sat down at her desk.

She had a lot of sketching to do.

**-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-**

Eli wearily put his head down on his console for a moment. His door was closed, he had laughed his head off, and was completely ignoring his other assignment. Something was off. Where was the angry medic?

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26/30 days remaining

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The sun rose over the mountains, casting a bright golden glow over the small encampment. The sixty – odd people began to stir, eager to get their daily work over with so that they could continue with their vacation. A full-last soccer tournament had been started up, along with a bird watching club, and a plethora of other free time occupations. Volker had quickly gathered a small expedition to the spire, on the very first day. Due to the amount of people going down, Colonel Young had insisted that the camp site be farther away from the unknown, and possibly purple pinstriped miniature zebra-kangaroo hybrid emitting, architectural amazement.

Watching the sunrise, seeing the glorious band of silver warmly embrace the mountains, was a sight that gave Ronald Greer an unimaginable amount of peace. The sunrise was a sign that there was a new opportunity, that there was a chance for everything to be okay. Being on a spaceship constantly, the only glimpses of the sun he had gotten in all these months was when they stopped in a solar system, or when they stepped onto a new planet. Ron had to treasure these instances while he still had them – in a little under a month, they would be back in that ship.

The sergeant had little to miss about home. Really, his mother and his crappy childhood home was all, but it was still home, and he knew that they were both too far away from the SGC to be possible to visit. The rest of his family was all here – Matt and Tali were his siblings in all but blood, and the Colonel was the closest he would probably ever get to a father. As long as they were okay, he could deal. But being able to see the sunrise every morning was still great. It was the only thing that every place had in common – every livable planet, at some point in time, has a sunrise.

For most people, the very start of the day was when you got to see them at their most natural. Morning people were exempt from this, but on the Destiny, and now on the unanimously named Planet Uto, as in Utopia, morning people were few and far between. As such, there had been no competition for the early morning watch. Ron had taken this opportunity to see not only the sunrise each morning, but also the less guarded versions of the vacationing crew members.

He was brought out of his thoughts when his replacement tapped his shoulder. Ron nodded tiredly, and strode off to get some sleep.

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Matt's eyes immediately fixed on the slip of Chloe's midriff that appeared as she stretched outside her tent – which was directly across from his. He didn't have to imaging what else there was to see – the lieutenant had long since memorized Chloe's body.

Chloe smiled at him, before moving on to the fire circle to get some food.

He had no idea what she was thinking. On the ship, she was so cold, but recently she's been driving him crazy. What was going on in that head of hers?

Most of him just wanted to go back to her, have her in his arms again. But there was a small part, a microscopic part, that was hurt by her part in the mutiny. Matt knew he had to forgive her, but it was so much harder to forget. The fact that Tali didn't like her wasn't helping.

Yes, Tali was entitled to her opinion. And he was so glad that his sister wasn't siding against him, but couldn't she support her brother?

Matt lost his train of thought as Chloe smiled at him demurely and patted the log next to her.

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That morning, Tali woke up with a sore neck, swollen eyes, morning breath, and a headache. Everything you could expect from sitting on the floor by a window all night. She had, however, reached her conclusion.

Eli was who she could go to with any problem. He was the one who she could talk away the hours with, who laughed at her jokes and made her feel special. She could constantly count on Eli. He himself was an amazing individual. Not only was he a genius, but he was compassionate, caring, honest, and so many good things. Tali wasn't sure if she loved him, but the medic knew one thing for certain; she cared deeply for him. This brought up a new problem.

All she knew was from old romance novels – Tali had no idea how to proceed. She needed help.

Looking at the clock, which was telling her that she should have been climbing out of her warm and cozy bed hours ago, Tali hauled herself off the floor, and into the little cupboard that the Ancients called a personal bathroom. It had a sink, mirror, and toilet. Splashing some water on her face, Tali grabbed her jacket and headed out to the infirmary. Her cell phone had the alarm set, why didn't it go off? She was so late!

The darn thing was out of batteries.

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Eli was now officially worried. When Tali didn't come into his quarters last night, he figured that something had delayed her. When she wasn't at breakfast this morning, he figured that she was just PMSing, and currently using her forensics skills to set up a death for him that would be impossible to solve. However, when she didn't turn up for lunch, Eli started to worry that she was hurt. This thought made the math genius jump up from his workstation, leave his quarters, and head down to the infirmary.

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"Tal?"

The aforementioned female turned around with a start. After her morning … well, afternoon … she was so not ready for this. How was she supposed to talk to Eli?

_'Okay Talitha, nothing to it. Pretend nothing's happened.'_

"Hey Eli. What's up?"

"Not much." Eli eyed her suspiciously. "You okay?"

_'Oh crap he's seen right through me! How do I fix this? I don't want to have to laugh at the tribbles alone! How do …'_

"Yeah, just a little groggy. Didn't sleep too well last night." Tali tried her best to be casual, putting her marker and masking tape on a nearby table.

Eli seemed hesitant. "So … you aren't mad?"

_'… ?'_

Tali idly blinked in confusion. "About what?"

Eli sighed in relief. "Nevermind. So, what are you working on?"

"Don't you have your own work to do?"

The genius grabbed a chair. "My work is physically impossible. The radios are all ready at the highest range that I can make them, but it still wont be far enough."

"What about some sort of relay?"

Eli shook his head. "With the materials we'd have to make them with, they'd be far too impractical. Each one would be about a square meter, weigh 50lbs, and have limited abilities, so each team would have to carry 3 or 4. Even if we used a kino sled to move them, it would slow us down to the extent where we wouldn't get done in time before we went into FTL again."

The forensic scientist nodded. "Well, maybe you can help me then. I'm trying to label the most important systems, but I'm still having trouble with Ancient."

Eli smiled and got up, shaking his head. "What is it with you and other languages? Let me see."

After Eli had corrected 2 of Tali's grand total of 3 translations, and helped her with another 10, he remembered one other question he had for her.

"Hey Tal, where were you today, anyway? Breakfast and lunch were surprisingly peaceful." he teased, sticking another markered – up tape on a console.

Tali rolled her eyes. "Ha ha. I forgot to charge my cell, and my alarm didn't go off." she glanced over at him, but Eli had frozen. She waved her hand in front of his face. "Destiny to Math Boy? Hello?"

He snapped out of it, his face suddenly plastered with that passionately eager look that all the scientists got when they got a really good idea. He turned and grabbed her hand, pulling her out of the infirmary, tape and marker dropping to the floor.

_'HE'S HOLDING MY HAND! … God I sound like a teenager …' _

"Tal, you're a genius!"

"Uh," Eli pulled her into the elevator and jabbed the up button, unfortunately letting go of her hand in the process, "I thought that was you?"

Eli rolled his eyes. "Tal, cell phones! It _wouldn't_ be impossible to make a pseudo-satellite to control them, and we could use them instead of the radios! All we have to do is make something to fill the place of a service provider, and make the coverage extend to the whole ship. This can work!"

They arrived in his quarters, and Tali was pleasantly surprised when the doors closed behind them.

"You've been working hard on that radio idea, haven't you?" she dryly asked.

Eli snorted. "Oh yeah. I've been at it every hour, never sleeping, never eating. It had become my life." he responded sarcastically. "By the way, loved the whole ghost thing, but you need to practice your kino control."

"What?"

"Tal, come on. It's shaky at best."


End file.
